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TOTING. 



RECOLLECTIONS 



RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



BY FATHER WILLIAM. 

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PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS. 

SUSn.VY-SCIIOOL VXIOX, iOO MULBERRY-STREET. 

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 
CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern 
District of NeAv-York. 



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TO THE READER. 






The following narrative of one of my early 
journeys is true to the life. I sometimes 
wish, it were less so. It is because it is 
true, and because its truths are likely to 
do the young good, that I publish it. I 
have been many years preparing it. That 
it may lead you to confess yourselves pil- 
grims and strangers on the earth, and to 
seek a better country — even a heavenly — 
is the prayer of 

The Writer. 



# 



|lUt5tniti0tt5, 



PAGB 

TOTING 2 

DOGS AT THE GATE 76 

PAMUNKEY INDIANS 131 

BOATING THROUGH THE ICE 158 

TALL OF THE CHIMNEY 177 



CONTENTS. - 



CHAPTER I. 

SETTIKG OUT. 

A desire to ramble — Opposition from my friends — Other difficul- 
ties — Conclude to go South — A traveling companion — My pa- 
rents' fears— My plan of operation— Journey to New-Haven — 
Engage my passage — Attempts to discourage us— These attempts 
unsuccessful — Fears of the water Page 13 

CHAPTER n. 

LONG ISLAND SOUND AND NEW-YORK BAY. 

Sailing along the Sound— Bad weather— Beating— Hnrlgate—New- 
Tork — Accident there — Trying to get to sea — Difficulties — An- 
choiing in Now- York Bay for the night 20 

CHAPTER ni. 

ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 

Morning — The wind favorable — Out of sight of land— Seasickness 
— The hold— Eheumatism — Eapid sailing — Trouble with the 
captain— OflF Cape Charles and Cape Henry — In the Gulf-stream 
— Huge waves— Sweeping the deck — Getting wet— Sleeping in 
the midst of danger — Pseudo resignation— A great curiosity at 
sea — Its supposed cause— The temperature of the Gulf-stream — 
How to avoid seasickness, or at least to mitigate it — Oflf Cape Hat- 
teras 25 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. 

How I spent my time— Why I had no books— Bad books and 
foul conversation — Blackguards, mimics, and buffoons — Playing 
at cards— Catching fish — The dolphin — Boiling it with silver — 
"Schools" of tortoises — A turtle sleeping on the waves — Sea 
birds — The stormy petrel — A shark following the vessel night 
and day — Attempts to take him — Evening serenading at sea — 
Sight of land— No pilot obtained— Driven off — Eeturn — A pilot 
on board— Description of him Page 84 

CHAPTER V. 

ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 

Sailing up the harbor— Sullivan's Island— Landing— Getting off 
our sea legs— Appetite— Walking about tlie city— A Sunday in 
Charleston — Jewish synagogue — The market — The yellow fever 
—Escaping shipwreck on the land 41 

CHAPTER VI. 

CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. 

"Ways and means of traveling iu Carolina — Countrymen's wagons 
— Engage a passage with one of these— Description of our cara- 
van—My companion and I— Oddity of our appearance— State 
of our health— Slow traveling 49 

CHAPTER VII. 

CAMPING OUT. 

Five miles out from Charleston— The "camping ground"— De- 
scription-Building fires— Eefreshment— Manner of sleeping — 
Eeasons why they camped out — Bed of pine needles — Noisy 
companions — Rum on board the wagons — Suffering from cold — 
The burnt coat— Breakfasting— Going to the spring— Ginger and 
water— Unsound advice 53 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TRAVELIXG IX CAEOLIKA. 

Eesuining our journey — Face of the country — Saucy dogs— Birth- 
place of President Jackson— Slaves picking cotton — Laborers at 
Monk's Corner— Their food— Sickness in the country— No fruits 
except the persimmon — Description of the persimmon — Oranges 
— The three kinds of cotton— Mode of picking it — Eice and rice 
fields — Indigo at Granby — Arrival at Columbia. Page 59 

CHAPTER IX. 

COLUMBIA AND ITS VICIXITY. 

Columbia, its situation and beauty — The canal works — Dangers 
encountered there — Getting lost in the -woods — Going round 
and round in a circle — Final return to the shanty to lodge — Un- 
interesting state of the country 67 

CHAPTER X. 

ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 

Face of the country— Spring Hill— Dr. Schraits— Arrival at "New- 
berry — Description of the place— Division of this state into dis- 
tricts — No townships — Few villages— A chestnut-tree— Peculiar 
appearance of the country to a traveler — Their churches and 
church services — Their school-houses, internally and externally 
— Antiquated customs — Mode of driving steers— Carolina horse- 
men — Cattle, sheep, and goats • 72 

CHAPTER XI. 

JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 

School-keeping in South Carolina — Difficulties — Set out for Nor- 
folk, in Virginia— Obstacles— Sand, and rivers without bridges — 
Winnsborough — Bleauford's Battle Ground — An adventure — 
Peter May's — Fayetteville — Tarborough — The nor'ard man — 
Our danger— Value of a friend— Minding our business— Pitch 
and tar— North Carolina pork 81 



10 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

ARErVAL AT NORFOLK. 

The Pwoanoke— Great field of corn— Portsmouth— Arrived at Nor- 
folk— Our stopi)ing-place— A great mistake— The dangers to 
which we were exposed— Thoughts for young men— A quota- 
tion Page 94 

CHAPTER Xin. 

FOOL-HARDINESS. 

An excursion— Putting up at Anthony's— My companions— Tho 
tumbler of whisky —Danger of rohbery — Providential escape — 
Eeflectious on drinking whisky 102 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SHIPWRECK AND OTHER ADVENTURES. 

Description of Suffolk— Voyage to that place— A snow-squall — 
Driven on a sand-bar — Detention — Arrived in Suffolk — Brandy 
at dinner— The toddy-stick- The slave beaten— Lorenzo Dow — 
Keturn to Norfolk— Perils by land— My French friend lOS 

CHAPTER XV. 

MY IMPRISONMENT AND SINGULAR LIBERATION. 

A trading excursion — Being taken up— Pity excited — My singular 
liberation — Arrive safely at Norfolk— Eeflcctions 116 

CHAPTER XVI. 

STORY OF TOM COOKE. 

A Virginia family— Introduction to Uncle Tom Cooke— His tin- 
pleasant familiarity — Suspicions excited — Sleep with him — His 
wakefulness— My presence of mmd — All safe in the morning- 
Took my leave— Inquiries further on — Developments — Escape 
— Keflections on such characters as that of Tom Cooke 122 



CONTENTS. 11 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS AND THEIR DOGS. 

Location of these Indians — Tlieir character — Fierce dogs — Fond- 
ness of the Virginians for dogs and hunting — Their troublesome- 
ness to sti-angers Page 129 

CHAPTER XVin. 

THE CHURCH FOX AND VIRGINIA HUNTING, 

The old Protestant churches — Good places for wild animals— The 
church fox— The public regard for hunting in general— Squirrels 
— Their abundance — Shooting birds 135 

CHAPTER XIX. 

A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 

The wealthy— Sojourning a night with them— Peculiar hospitality 
— The card-table — A man and his three sons — His regularity — 
Hunting and card-playing his only business 139 

CHAPTER XX. 

A SABBATH IN AIRGINIA. 

Late on Saturday night— Siiccced at length in finding lodgings— 
Sundaj% how kept— A scene after supper— Eeflections—Eemarks 
on the character of young men when they first break away from 
home 146 

CHAPTER XXI. 

PERILOUS ADVENTURE AT GWYN's ISLAND. 

Crossed over to Gwyn's Island — Description of the island — Mr. 
Gwyn— His dogs— The extreme cold— Freezing up in the river 
—My hazardous escape— A second escape from freezing to death 
— AiTival at the house of a friend 153 

CHAPTER XXII. 

VISIT TO YORKTOWN. 

Present condition of Yorktown — Former condition — The excava- 
tions and forts— Cornwallis's Cave — Did Cornwallis really occu- 
py it?— Christmas and Jfew Year's— Condition of the colored 
people 161 



12 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

MY SICK COMPANION. 

Friend ill— Serious trouble— Claims of duty— Providential sup- 
port Page 166 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

A GREAT FIRE. 

Portsmouth on fire — Danger of Norfolk, a mile distant— One house 
there actually set on fire — A visit to the ruins — The half-naked 
children — The state of the gardens — Burnt domestic animals — 
A narrow escape from death — Eeflections — Return to Norfolk 172 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE STEAMBOAT AND THE SHIPWRECK. 

The old steamboat in Hampton Eoads— Danger of going to pieces 
— Arrival at Old Point Comfort — The captain puts back — We 
are transferred to a schooner — Pass over in safety — Shipwreck 
of the sloop Kising Sun, at Lyunhaveu Bay ISl 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

SICKNESS AND DISEASE. 

Sickness at the South— Its causes— Joshua Ellis— "Wrong treat- 
ment — Various other causes more rife than climate — Eeflections 
on the liabilities to disease in a Southern climate generally . . 185 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE COCK-FIGHT. 

Setting sail for New-York — Detained in Hampton Eoads— A Sab- 
batli on the water — Visited Hampton on Monday — Eowing 
against the captain — Eetum without loss, and with some gain 189 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

GOING HOME. 

Quick passage to New- York — Journey to Connecticut — Eeacb my 
father's house — A joyful meeting of those who were alive— Ee- 
flections 194 



RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER I. 

SETTING OUT. 

No New-England boy ever had a happier 
home, or kinder parents, and other friends, 
than I. With them I lived and labored, 
cheerfully and happily, till I was almost as 
large as I am now, before I ever went thirty 
miles from my father's chimney. True, I 
had my seasons of discontent, like many 
other boys. I wanted to be a printer — I 
wanted to be a professional man — I wanted 
to travel — I wanted to do (at times, I mean) 
sundry other things. But my strongest de- 
sire, after all, was to ramble. 

This desire to ramble had been excited, 
somewhat, by reading books of travel and 
wild adventure, such as Robinson Crusoe, 



14 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

and Lewis and Clark's travels up the Missouri 
Eiver. It had also received an increased 
impulse from the repeated saying of an 
old lady in the neighborhood, that because 
I had two ** crowns," I was destined to " eat 
my bread in two kingdoms.'' 

I was now more than twenty years of age. 
I had long been a schoolmaster in the win- 
ter, when we could do nothing of consequence 
on the farm ; and I had been permitted, af- 
ter the termination of my winter's campaign 
in teaching, to make two little journeys — 
one to see the "Bay State," and some other 
objects ; and another to see " York" State. 

Still I was not satisfied with seeing. In 
general, as I suppose, the more we see the 
more we wish to see. It was certainly so 
with me, at this early period. I was all on 
tiptoe to visit the Southern States. I had 
seen a little of the North and the West — 
that is, I had been a hundred miles west — 
and now I was anxious to make a trip to 
the South. 

There was a " gold fever" prevailing in 
Connecticut just at this time — not a little 
like the great California gold fever that has 



SETTING OUT. 15 

prevailed of late all over the Union. I 
mean this : The young men, by hundreds, 
had begun to travel to the Middle and 
Southern States, every winter, with combs, 
clocks, and tin-ware, which they sold rapidly, 
at large prices and great profits ; and some 
of them appeared to be getting rich. True, 
there was not a little dishonesty connected 
with the traffic ; for some of these peddlers 
boasted that they had sold common tin lan- 
terns for silver ones ; and a lady in Suffolk, 
in Virginia, afterward showed me a " toddy 
stick,'^ worth, perhaps, twelve and a half 
cents, for which she said she paid twelve 
dollars. 

Now the end of this fever about gold had 
not arrived at the time of which I am speak- 
ing, and I was greatly moved by the anec- 
dotes which many of these young adventu- 
rers related, and by reading Morse's Geog- 
raphy on the subject, to desire to see for 
myself — especially South Carolina. Gold I 
was not after, but the gratification of that 
strong desire to see, of which I have before 
spoken. 

But my .relatives and friends were opposed 



16 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

to my traveling abroad, especially such a 
distance. It was as mucli as they could 
well endure to bear my absence long enough 
to go a hundred miles north or west ; but a 
thousand miles — why, they could not hear 
a word about it ! My father, in particular, 
was distressed beyond measure at the thought 
of it. 

I was sorry, greatly sorry, to oppose such 
a current of feeling; but my mind was 
pretty nearly made up. There was, how- 
ever, one serious difficulty. How could I 
meet the expenses? I had but thirty or 
forty dollars I could call my own, and this 
would go but a little way toward maintain- 
ing me during a long autumn and winter 
and spring. 

Something, therefore, must be done, on 
my arrival at the South, or I should soon be 
out of funds. I was not willing to sell tin, 
or combs, or clocks, if I could help it. Be- 
sides, I had no horse and wagon with which 
to carry my wares about in, had there been 
no other difficulty. 

I had heard much of school-keeping in 
that country — how profitable it was; but 



SETTING OUT. 17 

could a stranger, like myself, succeed in 
introducing himself, at once, as a teacher? 
Would it not require several months, or, at 
least, several weeks of probation? Some, 
indeed, could carry with them written rec- 
ommendations from learned and great men ; 
but of these I was wholly destitute. I was 
a teacher, but I was unknown — almost so. 
Nevertheless, I had determined to adven- 
ture, and therefore all difficulties soon van- 
ished. A schooner was about sailing from 
New-Haven to Charleston, in South Carolina, 
with some fifty to one hundred young men 
who were to be employed in digging a canal 
near Columbia ; and their fare from New- 
Haven to Charleston was to be only ten dol- 
lars a piece. I will go in this vessel, I said 
to myself ; and if I can get a school, I will ; 
and if not, why then I will work on the 
canal. 

Another young adventurer, with views 
similar to my own, but who had traveled 
more, both at the South and elsewhere, 
agreed to accompany me. With heavy 
hearts we set out, on the third day of Octo- 
ber. But heavy as our hearts were, those 



18 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

of others were heavier. My aged father 
and mother could hardly bear the sight. 
Their eyes, suffused with tears, followed me 
as I passed over " the hill," when they re- 
tired to weep alone, hardly expecting ever 
to behold me more. 

In a drenching rain I went from my 
home to New-Haven, a distance of about 
twenty-five miles. The schooner was nearly 
ready to sail, and we went on board. It 
was evening, however, and the captain con- 
cluded not to sail till next morning. 

Going on shore that evening, and con- 
versing with some of the citizens, they en- 
deavored to dissuade us from our underta- 
king. One man, in particular, with whom 
I was slightly acquainted, assured us that 
the yellow-fever was prevailing in Charles- 
ton, and it would be exceedingly hazardous 
to the life of any northern person to land 
there at such a season. But we had paid 
our fare, and the rest of the company were 
going, and we resolved to proceed with the 
rest. 

It cost me a slight effort to surmount my 
natural dread of water. Hitherto I had 



SETTING OUT. 19 

only crossed a river or two, like the Hudson 
or the Connecticut ; and my sufferings, in 
doing this, had been extreme. What shoukl 
I do now? However, we soon became rec- 
onciled to our condition, in such circum- 
stances ; and I found a reconciliation much 
easier than I had expected, 
2 



20 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER II. 

LONG ISLAND SOUND AND NEW-YORK BAY. 

On the morning of October 4:tli we set sail. 
Our progress was slow, for two or three 
reasons. First, there was not much wind. 
Secondly, our vessel, though large and dr^^ 
was a dull sailer. Thirdly, she was, as I 
afterward found, rather heavily laden. 

I have already said that our vessel was a 
schooner. Her name was " Enterprise.'^ 
She had been built in Eden, Maine, and the 
captain was going south to sell her. To 
defray his expenses he had taken passengers 
and freight. 

We were a whole day and night in pass- 
ing the southern shore of Connecticut. The 
next day the wind blew, but it was " ahead.'' 
Of course, we had to " beat," as the sailors 
say. That is, we had to tack this way and 
that, so as to bring the sides of the vessel 
alternately toward the wind. In this way 
we gained something; but it seemed, at 



LO^TQ ISLAND SOUND. 21 

times, very little. We were almost all that 
daj in reaching New-York, and glad were 
Ave to get there at all. I do not suppose, 
indeed, that we were, at any time, in much 
danger; hut to us, who were most of us 
mere landsmen, it seemed as if the danger 
was, occasionally, imminent. In running 
close to the wind, the schooner sometimes 
appeared about to dash on a precipice or 
rock, on a hold shore, when suddenly the 
sails would flap and swell in another direc- 
tion, and away the vessel would go, to run 
within a few feet, perhaps, of some rock or 
bluff on the other side. The Sound, when 
we have passed Connecticut, and are ap- 
proaching New- York, becomes quite narrow, 
so that this beating against the wind, of 
which I have been speaking, if not danger- 
ous, is at least difficult. 

But the greatest danger we encountered 
was in passing through Hurlgate, or, as it 
was formerly called. Hell-gate. This is a 
narrow place, a little way east of New- York, 
which is beset with rocks — or once was — so 
that, at low tide, it is full of whirlpools, 
and is not passed without difficulty and 



22 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

danger, even by the oldest and most skillful 
pilots. The waters, when we passed, whirl- 
ed and foamed and roared ; hut we passed 
through safely. Of late, as I understand, 
some of the rocks of this dangerous pass 
have been removed. 

In these days of rapid traveling, when 
Long Island Sound may be traversed, even 
against wind and tide, in a few hours, the 
journey I have just spoken of would hardly 
be thought worthy of notice. But it was 
then very different; and to me, especially, it 
seemed, as it were, a little life. 

We arrived at New- York just at evening ; 
but as we were not to make a long stay 
there, the captain said we must none of us 
go ashore, except to remain a few moments. 
Most of us kept within sight of the ship ; 
but a few wandered so far into the city that 
they did not return till the vessel had sailed. 
Whether they all got on board, in the end, 
I never knew, as we were almost all stran- 
gers to each other. I believe, however, that 
they came on board that night, or the next 
morning. 

Just at dark we set sail for Charleston. 



NEW-YORK BAY. 23 

But tlie wind was unfavorable, and it was 
next to impossible to get out of the bay. 
And yet several other vessels found their 
way out. What was the matter with ours ? 
I have already told you she was a dull sail- 
er. But she was old and decrepit, as well 
as dull. In truth, she was totally unfit for 
the voyage which had been undertaken, es- 
pecially in the case of high winds and tem- 
pestuous weather. But there was another 
difficulty. She was not well manned. Some 
of us had reason to believe, in the end, that 
neither the captain nor the mate knew much 
about commanding a vessel. But, however 
'this may have been, they certainly had too 
few hands to assist them. Seeing this to 
be the fact, some of us volunteered our aid 
to assist in getting out of the bay. 

It was all to no purpose, however. We 
toileii half the night, and yet were as far 
from having accomplished our purpose as 
when Ave started. We were, indeed, worse 
off, in one particular. In attempting to get 
out we had struck on a sand-bar, and con- 
siderably injured the vessel. 

At last we gave all up, and anchored in 



24 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

a safe place till morning. Those of us who 
could, went to sleep. It was not so easy to 
sleep, however, as you may imagine ; for, in 
order to go " cheap," we had nothing hut 
the hold of the vessel to sleep in; and 
landsmen do not hecome at once reconciled 
to naked floors, with trunks, or billets of 
wood, for pillows. Besides, some of us were 
too much excited, or, at least, too much fa- 
tigued, to sleep well. It is an ill wind, 
however, that blows nobody any good. Our 
delay enabled some of our tardy associates 
to join us. 



ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 25 



CHAPTER III. 
ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 



Morning at length came, and with it a fa- 
vorable wind. We were soon under weigh 
for Charleston. The scenery was grand as 
we passed out of the bay — the city in our 
rear, Staten Island on our right, and Long 
Island on our left. But we gradually lost 
sight of them all, and of Sandy Hook and 
Jersey shore besides. 

Those who have never been in similar 
circumstances will find it not a little diffi- 
cult to understand, merely from being told, 
what our feelings were, when, for the first 
time in our lives, we saw no land — the sky 
and ocean appearing to meet all around us. 

New troubles now arose. The passengers 
began to be seasick — myself among the 
rest; for though the wind was fair, yet it 
blew pretty hard, and the sea was rough. 
Before sunset, nearly every one on board 
was pale and helpless, or sick and vomiting. 



26 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

Our habitation — the steerage, or hold — was 
more like a hospital than like a sleepi no- 
room. Some of the old sailors were as sicli 
as the passengers. 

As may he supposed, I slept hut little 
that night. How could I, in the midst of 
forty or fifty sick men, and severely sick 
myself? I did not, indeed, vomit as much 
as some of my companions ; for I found 
that by lying still on my back, I could, in 
part, suppress it. To add to my trouble, I 
suffered considerably from rheumatism. 
One of my lower limbs I could hardly move ; 
I could only drag it in a particular direc- 
tion ; and even this movement was painful. 

The wind, however, continued fresh, and 
we were wafted onward, during the night, 
at the rate of nearly ten miles an hour — 
which, considering the dullness of the 
schooner, was thought to be very tolerable 
progress- At length the day broke in upon 
us again, to show us nothing, however, but 
sky, clouds, and water, with here and there 
another vessel under full sail. 

Nothing new or strange occurred the 
next day. Most of us kept our places in 



ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 27 

the hold. We had little disposition to eat 
or drink ; nor were our desires to eat great- 
ly increased by the reports which came to 
our ears concerning the badness of our pro- 
visions. It was now generally believed, 
among the passengers, that the captain had 
bought spoiled meat, and other injured ar- 
ticles, for our use, to save expense. One 
thing which tended to confirm our suspicions 
was, the irritability of the captain when the 
subject was mentioned to him. If he had 
intended to furnish good provisions, and a 
mistake had been made, why did he not say 
so ? This would have satisfied us far better 
than angry words and vile oaths. 

The captain was a bad man, as was obvi- 
ous from his whole conduct. He was al- 
most constantly in a passion, at one thing 
or another. But what grieved me most 
was — when I had strength to get on deck — 
to see his treatment of a colored cabin boy. 
He seemed, in truth, to vent half his dis- 
pleasure toward others on this poor lad. 
Once I saw him seize him by the collar of 
his jacket, and then kick him off the quar- 
ter-deck — which was several feet higher than 



28 BAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

the main-deck — with so much violence as to 
leave the jacket in his hand. Such oaths I 
had never heard before. 

Sometimes I suspected strongly that he 
drank spirituous liquors ; and I have seen 
men, since I became more acquainted with 
the world, on whom rum and brandy, and 
even cider and wine and ale, had precisely 
this effect. He was, however, a tyrant, 
whether he drank rum or not ; and we could 
hardly bear the sight of him. The mate 
was a better man. 

All day long, during this second day of 
our progress from New- York, the wind blew 
fresh and strong, so that, by evening, we 
were in the latitude of Cape Charles and 
Cape Henry, in Virginia. Of course, we 
were not near them ; for the captain had 
purposely stood off at sea, a long distance 
from any known capes, shores, islands, or 
sand-bars. 

At evening the sea became still more 
rough than before, and the wind more \\o- 
lent. But our vessel, though dull and 
heavy, was, as I said before, quite dry. It 
was seldom that the deck was wet all over. 



ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 29 

Sometimes, however, as I must confess, the 
seas ran over us, and if the "hatchway'^ 
was not closed, gave us a fine sprinkling 
below. Nor did those above wholly escape. 
One huge wave, as I was standing on the 
deck, wet me almost to my hips, and, per- 
haps, would have swept me away, had I not 
clung to the ropes with all my might. 

The second night from New- York, though 
the sea was raging, and the people all 
around me were sick, I slept quite soundly. 
How strange ! Six days before, I should have 
been terrified at the bare thought of cross- 
ing a river ; now, here I was, on the tem- 
pestuous ocean, nearly a hundred miles from 
land, with nothing between me and a wa- 
tery grave but a plank or two, and yet 
sleeping as quietly as a lamb. 

Something is said of the divine hand — 
that it " tempers the wind to the shorn 
lamb ;'' and I have no doubt it is so. Many 
people, in circumstances like these, however, 
think themselves wonderfully resigned to 
the will of God; when all their apparent 
resignation grows out of a tendency in our 
nature to submit, of necessity, to what we 



30 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

cannot avoid. Mj su"bmission, at the time 
of which I am speaking, was, I dare say, of 
this description. 

But though I slept quietly enough this 
night, I rose once or twice, and, despite of 
sea sickness, rheumatism, wind and storm, 
crept upon deck. We were now in the Gulf- 
stream, and the wind unfavorable, so that 
we were making but little progress. The 
Gulf-stream runs northeastward, at the 
rate of three miles an hour, which was as 
much as our vessel knew how to contend 
with, had the wind been right. 

On reaching the deck, and approaching the 
bow of the vessel, a scene presented itself 
of which I had read, but which I had never 
expected to witness. The schooner seemed 
to be actually ploughing her way through 
waves of fire. Now, to see the water thus 
sparkling like fire, was to me, I assure you, 
a most novel aifair. It almost repaid the 
trouble of one day's sea sickness. 

What may be the cause of this strange 
appearance — phosphorescence in the water 
— is beyond my power to determine. Some 
naturalists say it is caused by certain small 



ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 31 

animals which, like the glow-worm and fire- 
fly, are phosphorescent. I know not why 
sea animals may not be phosphorescent, as 
well as land animals ; but I think it more 
likely that the phenomenon arises from the 
agitation of phosphorescent pustules in the 
water. 

Morning came at length, but with it no 
better weather. Indeed, the weather was 
worse. The wind became very strong 
against us, and, together with Uie opposing 
current of the Gulf-stream, drove us back- 
ward instead of helping us forward. During 
the next twenty-four hours we fell to the 
northeast — to leeward, as sailors say — a 
whole degree of latitude. 

You may wonder why we sailed so far 
from shore as to carry us into the Gulf- 
stream ; and so did I, then. But the mate 
of the vessel said it was in order to keep 
clear of shoals and bars, which abound off 
the coast of North Carolina. 

The water in the Gulf-stream is warmer 
than it is in other parts of the ocean. If 
you thrust your hand into a pailfull of it, 
Avhen first drawn up, you will tind it almost 



o2 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

as warm as the fresh-drawn blood of an 
ordinary animal, wliich is about 98° or 
100° of the common thermometer. It is, 
moreover, as blue, or nearly so, as the 
sky. 

The wind continuing unfavorable, we 
went on heavily many days. Most of our 
sick slowly recovered, though a few did not 
till they reached the land. They looked 
pale, and had no appetite all the rest of tho 
voyage. I was one of this number. I was 
obliged to keep still more than nine-tenths 
of the time ; for, if I did not, my sea sick- 
ness would return. Tlie best thing I could 
do, I found, was to lie still on my back, and 
abstain almost wholly from food. 

Sometimes I would have given all the 
world — had it been mine to give — to have 
been on shore again, and at my father's 
farm. But I had adventured, and I must 
now abide the consequences. " It is an ill 
wind,'' I repeatedly said to myself, " that 
blows nobody any good ;" and perhaps the 
voyage will be useful to me. after all. 

At length we found ourselves in the lati- 
tude of Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina. 



ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 33 

This is a stormy and wincly place. Many 
sailors say the}' have never passed it except 
in a thunder storm ; and though it was now 
almost the middle of October, it thundered 
and lightened when we passed it ; but the 
storm was not very severe. 



34 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER IV. 
EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. 

You will be curious to know, perhaps, how 
I spent my time on the voyage. Not very 
agreeably, I assure you ; for, in the first 
place, I was sick, more or less, as long as 
the voyage lasted. But, secondly, when I 
was able to do anything, it was not easy to 
employ myself very profitably or very use- 
fully. 

At this period of my life I had no books, 
or none worth mentioning ; and what I 
owned were left at home. Then it was in 
vain to look for books on board sueli a ves- 
sel, either among the ofiicers and crew, or 
the passengers. Some of the latter had, 
indeed, a few bad books ; but for these 1 had 
no relish. 

Of conversation — agreeable, profitable 
conversation — I had almost as little as of 
profitable reading. I love conversation, 
dearly, when it is anything worthy of the 



EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. oO 

name; but 1 do not love the conversation 
of blackguards, mimics, or buffoons ; or of 
those who choose to make beasts of them- 
selves. There were, it is true, one or two 
intelligent young men on board, but they 
were nearly all the while extremely sick. 

Many of the young men spent their time 
in playing cards ; but for such amusement I 
never had any relish. Indeed, although I 
have been much among people who played 
cards, I never paid any attention to them ; 
and never in my life so much as knew their 
names. To tell you the truth, I always 
desj^ised a pack of cards, ever since I saw 
one. 

But, sometimes, when the sea was calm, 
we amused ourselves by going upon deck, 
and looking at the dolphins, which came 
around the vessel as thick — almost so — as 
bees in a swarm. They are among the most 
beautiful fish in the world. 

Some would have found it an amnsement 
to catch them. In truth, the sailors did 
take some of them: for I remember that 
when they came to boil tliom they threw a 
piece of silver into the vessel, to see whether 



36 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

it would be safe to eat them. They say 
that if the silver turns black, in such cases, 
the fish has been poisoned by sucking up 
copper, on the copper banks. I do not 
know how this notion originated. That 
the dolphin is sometimes poisonous is well 
understood ; but so are several other 
fishes that have never been near the copper 
banks. 

I did not amuse myself in any attempts 
to catch them, for several reasons. The 
principal of these, however, was sufficient to 
preclude all others. Once I had been ad- 
dicted to trapping, snaring, angling, &c. ; 
but moral considerations, at the early age 
of eleven years, had compelled me to aban- 
don all such cruel sports — and tliat for- 
ever. 

It was amusing to see the porpoises. 
They are a heavy, clumsy fish ; but to be- 
hold them, when the waves are rolling like 
mountains, leaping from the margin of a 
mighty wave, to fall, with a heavy splash, 
into the deep valley that yawned beneath 
it, was, to say the least, quite curious. 
Sometimes you will see them in large com- 



EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. 37 

panics, called schools ; and the water will 
appear to be full of them. 

One day we saw a huge tortoise floating 
on the top of the rolling waves. Was he 
dead? The sailors said he was alive, but 
fast asleep. A singular place to sleep, you 
will say ; and so did I. Perhaps the state- 
ment of the sailors was without authority, 
for sailors are a class of people very wise in 
tlieir own estimation. They would think it 
beneath their dignity not to be able to ex- 
l?lain everything. Science sometimes dares 
to say, " I do not know ;" but ignorance 
seldom, if ever. 

We saw birds occasionally, even at great 
distances from the land. Apparently very 
much fatigued, they would sometimes alight 
on various parts of the vessel. A hawk 
seated himself at mast-head one day, when 
a sly sailor w^ent softly up the ropes and 
caught him in his hand. 

While sitting on deck, in another in- 
stance, a small bird alighted on my knee ; 
but as I put out my hand to take it, away 
it flew, and perched upon the rigging. 

The stormy petrel, or, as the seamen call 



38 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

liim, "Mother Carey's Chicken/' is a won- 
derful bird. We saw him often. He is 
about as large as a robin, and is found in 
every part of the world, and at the great- 
est distances from land, on the wide 
ocean. Where he builds his nest I never 
heard. He can almost live on the water 
himself; but how can his young be raised 
there? 

But I do not know that anything of the 
kind interested me more than the fact that 
we were followed, night and day, for many 
days, by a shark. Do you ask why he fol- 
lowed us ? I can only tell you, as sailors 
say, that sharks follow vessels to get j^ieces 
of meat, or the dead bodies of men, or other 
animals, that happen to be thrown over- 
board. But this one did not appear to be 
hungry ; for the sailors baited a large hook 
with a piece of pork, in hopes to catcli him ; 
and yet he would not bite. Had they taken 
him it must have cost them much time and 
trouble to get him on board; for, judging 
from the appearance of his fins, which pro- 
jected always from the water, lie must have 
been from twelve to fifteen feet in length. 



EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. 39 

He was always at just about the same dis- 
tance from tlie vessel. 

One of our amusements I forgot to men- 
tion. There were several musicians on 
hoard who had their musical instruments. 
When the wind was not too violent, those 
of them who were well enough to do so, 
would form a little hand and go upon the 
deck, in the evening, and give a sort of ser- 
enade. Music on the water, especially du- 
ring a moonlight evening, is delightful. 

After being out of sight of land ten days 
and eleven nights, the captain told us we 
were not far from Charleston. Indeed, we 
could see land in the distance, very plainly ; 
but we were ignorant what it was, and there 
were doubts whether the captain knew much 
better than we, only he must have been 
better able to tell the latitude and lono-itude. 
There was a large dog on board that seemed 
to know nearly as much about it as any of 
us ; for he would go to the side of the vessel, 
look to^vard the land, and wag his tail ; and 
sometimes even utter a low moan. 

But so ignorant were our officers concern- 
ing the coast, that they did not know where 



40 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

to look for the harbor ; and we were off and 
on till almost night ; and though our colors 
were set for a pilot, none came till we were 
enveloped in thick darkness and fog. Nor 
was this the worst. A gale came on, and 
we were driven off the coast, a long way 
toward Bermuda. 

Next day the wind abated, and the cap- 
tain made another effort to find Charleston 
harbor. Before night we were again near 
it, and our colors were reset. A pilot at 
length came on board and took the com- 
mand. He was the first South Carolinian I 
had ever seen ; but I dared to indulge the 
hope that he was not a fair sample of his 
countrymen ; for he was a profane swearer, 
and, in many respects, a very vulgar man. 
Some pilots on our coasts, both north and 
south, as I have since found, are very wor- 
thy citizens. 



ARRIVAL AT CIIARLESTOX. 41 



CHAPTER V. 

ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 

Our pilot, tliongh a vulgar and profane 
man, knew his duty, and we were now being 
safely conducted into tlie harbor of Charles- 
ton. You may easily suppose that we were 
not sorry to approach land again, after hav- 
ing been more than two weeks in coming 
from New- York — a distance often traversed 
by steamboats, at present, in about two 
days ; and by other vessels, in three or 
four. 

In entering Charleston harbor we passed, 
on our riglit hand, Sullivan's Island, a place 
famous in the history of the American Rev- 
olution. It is noAv simply a barren plain, 
with a few evergreens upon it, and a small 
number of light, airy, but oddly-constructed 
dwellings, where many of the wealthy in- 
habitants of the city come to reside during 
the hot season, partly on account of its su- 
perior healthfulness, and partly that they 



42 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

may enjoy the delightful sea breezes which 
prevail here. 

We were now fairly in sight of Charles- 
ton, and under full sail. In a little time 
we were approaching one of the wharves. 
But before we were permitted to land, a 
health officer came on board to examine us. 
Seasickness had, indeed, blanched some of 
our ruddy northern cheeks ; but the doctor 
knew the cause, and pronouncing us healthy, 
we were permitted to land. It was the 
twentieth day of October. 

We had become so accustomed, during a 
voyage of about seventeen days from New- 
Haven, to the rocking motion of the vessel, 
that it was next to impossible for us, at 
first, to realize that we were on the firm 
earth again. The wharf seemed to swing 
to and fro, and we staggered about like 
drunken men. Even for a day or two, you 
would have laughed at my rocking gait, 
had you seen me. I had learned, more than 
two weeks before, how difficult a thing it 
was to "put on sea legs,^' as it is called : I 
was now learning the difficulty of putting 
them off. 



ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 43 

Not a little surprise was expressed, bj 
some of the people of Charleston, on seeing 
us arrive ; for it had been so long since the 
vessel left New- York that she was supposed, 
by most, to be lost. Several vessels had, 
indeed, been lost on the coast during the 
storms and gales we had encountered; and, 
considering all the circumstances, it was a 
wonder of divine mercy that we had es- 
caped. 

I had been so ill, and our food and water 
had been so bad, that I had scarcely eaten 
anything while on board. ' I was still sick 
and weak ; but my strength was returning, 
and so was my appetite. Seeing some 
beautiful New- York pippins for sale, I in- 
quired the price, and was told it was six 
cents each. This was the first time in my 
life that I had known apples sold for such a 
price. However, I soon found that three 
could be bought for twelve and a half cents. 
The truth was they did not use any copper 
change ; a thing was six and a quarter 
cents, or it was nothing. The half-dime, or 
five- cent piece, had not then been coined. 

After several attempts at eating, I began 



44 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

to conclude that the restoration of mj ap- 
petite must be the work of time, and could 
not, after all, be very much hastened by 
particular or favorite dishes. 

Weak though I was, I walked about the 
city with my companion, a little while, be- 
fore retiring to rest, and visited several of 
the principal streets. Charleston is a beau- 
tiful place, but not large ; it was scarcely 
larger than Providence or Salem now is. 
The streets are broader and handsomer than 
those of Boston ; but the buildings, both 
public and private, are not so good. There 
are, liowever, a few very elegant buildings. 
The city is on a tongue of land lying be- 
tween Ashley and Cooper rivers, and the 
streets run from river to river, and are in- 
tersected by others running across them at 
right angles. 

The market in Charleston is very liber- 
ally supplied with fish of all kinds, as well 
as with most of the vegetables, both of the 
south and the north. The market building 
is very long — some say nearly a mile. It 
is, however, a very miserable concern — a 
mere shanty, as western people would call it. 



ARKIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 45 

How difiPerently everything — or almost 
everything — in Charleston, appears, from 
what is seen in northern cities ! I had never 
before seen colored people more numerous 
in the streets than whites ; nor had I ever 
before seen people carrying all sorts of lug- 
gage — pails and tubs of water, chairs, bas- 
kets of fruit, vegetables and meat, beds, 
tables, sofas, and even coffins — on their 
heads.'" 

The white citizens of Charleston resemble 
very nearly those of Boston, only that they 
seem a little more attentive to strangers. 
The Sabbath — -judging from a single day 
spent there — is as well observed as in 
northern cities. 

I had arrived in Charleston on Saturday, 
and, of course, I was there on Sunday. On 
inquiry about the various denominations of 
Christians, and their churches, I learned 
that there was, among other places of wor- 
ship, a Jewish synagogue. Having not a 
little of Yankee curiosity, the thought struck 
me, I will, for once in my life, go to the 
synagogue. But then, upon second thought, 
'"•' See Frontispiece. 



46 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) was already 
over; so I attended at the church of the 
denomination to which I was accustomed at 
home ; which was, doubtless, better for me, 
all things considered. 

I was the more gratified, and, as I trust, 
edified, by attending public worship, from 
the fact that everything pertaining to 
the Sabbath, and to the duties of religion, 
externally, had been wholly neglected while 
we were on board the vessel. In truth, had 
we not known by the calendar which day 
of the week it was, Sunday could not have 
been distinguished from any of the other 
days. 

I had not learned, at this time, a most 
painful fact that further observation and 
travel forced upon me, viz., that people are 
very apt to leave their good habits at homo 
when they travel abroad. They seem tc 
think it is of less consequence how they be- 
have w^ien they are where none but stran- 
gers see them, than at home. Some young 
men who, while at home, are regarded as 
of the very best habits — perhaps members 
of some Christian Church or other — will 



ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 47 

even travel all day on Sunday, or give and 
receive visits, or sell or buy goods. Alas ! 
do they not know that though no earthly 
eye, fou which they have any particular re- 
gard, is upon them, yet the great God sees 
them, and will one day bring them into 
judgment for these very things? 

The yellow fever, of which so much was 
feared when I left New-Haven, scarcely pre- 
vailed. There had, indeed, been a few cases 
of it, but only a few. For anything which 
I could learn, I see no reason why I could 
not spend the season as safely in Charleston 
as in New-Tork or Boston. Even the heat 
of Charleston is not greater than that of 
Boston ; it is onlv a little lonoer con- 
tinned. 

While my companion and I were in 
Charleston, gazing about — far from friends 
to advise or control us — we were beset with 
many of those temptations to vice to which 
young men, glowing with curiosity — who 
have never before visited a city — are pecu- 
liarly exposed. We remembered, however, 
a word of advice which we had been accus- 
tomed to read in a famous school-book, viz., 



48 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

"Every one should mind his own business ;'' 
and gave heed to it. And it was well for 
us that we did ; for thus, after being pre- 
served by a kind Father in heaven from 
shipwreck at sea, we escaped a worse than 
shipwreck on the land. 



CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. 49 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. 

We now wished to go to Columbia, about 
one hundred and twenty miles to the north- 
west. Hoiv shall we go? was the great 
practical question. There were no stage 
coaches running in that direction ; and as 
for railroads, these were scarcely known at 
that time, and not at all in this region. 
Since that period a railroad has been con- 
structed from Charleston to Hamburg — one 
hundred and thirty-five miles ; but had it 
been in existence when we were there, it 
would not have conducted us in the right 
direction. 

There was, indeed, a steamboat running 
from Charleston to Columbia, through the 
Santee Eiver ; but it only went once a week 
or so, and the fare was very high. Some 
of the passengers in the " Enterprise" went 
in her, on Saturday, the day we arrived ; 
but they were tliose who had an abundance 



50 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

of money. The state of our funds admon- 
ished us to be more economical. 

The more common method of getting to 
Columbia, at that season, as I found, was 
to procure a passage with some wagoner. 
These wagoners, after having come from 
the upper country, with their vehicles heav- 
ily loaded with cotton, and sold it, purchase 
West India goods, such as rum, sugar, mo- 
lasses, &c., to carry back. Yet, loaded as 
they are w^ith goods of this sort, they will 
not, in ordinary circumstances, refuse to 
carry a traveler's trunk or two. 

My companion and I at length contracted 
with one of these wagoners to take our 
trunks — of which we had one each — to Co- 
lumbia. As for ourselves, we were to walk, 
as he did. It was not usual for the wagon 
to travel more than twenty miles — or, at 
most, twenty-five — a day ; and this, we 
thought, would not be difficult. 

On Monday, therefore, just at sunset — 
having put our trunks safely on board a 
huge wagon — we set out on our journey. I 
was so feeble, from long seasickness, that 
1 could hardly walk ; yet necessity compelled 



CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. 51 

me to attempt it. Besides, I hoped that air 
and exercise would gradually restore me, 
as eventually they did, though not so soon 
as I had expected. 

There were other wagons in company 
with that to which we were attached, so as 
to make up quite a " caravan." Some of 
them were drawn by mules — others by 
horses ; generally by two pairs each ; though 
some by three. Each one was under the 
care of two persons — a man and a boy. Oar 
group was of Dutch descent, and their home 
was beyond Columbia, near the Saluda 
River. 

There were many peculiarities about our 
" caravan.'^ One horse or mule connected 
with each wagon wore bells, and was guided 
either by the man or the boy, who sat 
astride, while his companion trudged along 
on foot, usually at his side. My traveling 
companion and I followed behind, now re- 
marking on the oddity of our appearance, 
and now, in silent retrospect, turning our 
thoughts back to the land of our fathers. 

My friend was in good spirits, but I was 
dejected. I had little strength and some 



52 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

disease. But the teams traveled slowly, 
and I took courage in the belief that as it 
was growing dark we should soon put up 
for the night. So we followed on, as pa- 
tiently as w-e could, asking no questions, 
and fully determined to make the best of 
everything. 



CAMPING OUT. 53 



CHAPTER VII. 

CAMPING OUT. 

At length, after traveling four or five miles, 
we inquired of one of our Dutclmien, — 
"Where are "\ve to put up for the night?'' 
"At tlie camping ground," was the reply. 
" Where is that ?" we asked. " 0, we shall 
soon come to it,'' was the reply. 

To the camping ground we accordingly 
soon came. It was just five miles from 
Charleston. Our teams were driven out of 
tlie road, into a large, thick pine grove, 
where the ground was tolerably dry, and 
arranged in a circle around a spot of ground 
wliich strongly resembled a place where 
charcoal had been burnt. We soon learned 
that it was a place where travelers were 
accustomed to stop ; and that, when it was 
cold, they built fires. 

It was now cold weather, and white frosts 
had commenced. Of course, fires were 
deemed necessary. While, therefore, a part 



54 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

of the men and boys were unliarnessing the 
horses, the rest went in pursuit of fallen 
wood for fuel. They soon collected a quan- 
tity of dry pine, which they called liglit- 
wood — or, in their provincial brogue, UgJitiid 
— and built a huge fire. Then they took 
from their wagon a kettle, and made some 
coffee. These people, you know, can hardly 
make a meal — so they think — without cof- 
fee. 

Having made a heavy repast of hoe-cake 
(corn bread) and bacon, and drank their 
coffee, the next thing was to prepare their 
beds. Each wagon carried a feather-bed 
and a blanket. Their custom was to spread 
the blanket on the ground, and lie down 
upon it, and cover themselves with the bed. 

This, thought we, is an odd way; but we 
soon learned that it was the custom of the 
Dutch inhabitants of that part of the coun- 
try, either to sleep in this way, or witli two 
feather-beds — one above and one below 
them. 

You wonder, perhaps, why these people, 
in traveling along, slept in the woods. 
There were three reasons. 1. There were 



CAMPING OUT. 55 

no public houses, or almost none, on the 
road. 2. It was very sickly in the country, 
and, on this account, we could not get ac- 
commodated at private houses. 3. The 
lionest Dutchmen wanted to be economical, 
and save their money. 

While my companion and I were half 
disposed to smile at the oddity of the ar- 
rangements for sleeping, the question came 
across our minds, for the first time. Where 
are tve to sleep ? So we asked counsel of 
our Dutch friends. They would gladly have 
allowed us to sleep with them, but a single 
feather-bed would not serve as a covering 
for more than two persons. So they advised 
us to collect pine needles — the dried leaves 
of the pine — and make ourselves a bed of 
them. Necessity compelled us to follow 
their advice, and we soon collected a large 
heap of pine needles, and laid ourselves 
down for repose. 

We lay down, I said ; but it was not so 
easy to sleep. The Dutchmen were alter- 
nately lying down and getting up again, 
till nearly midnight. Sometimes they were 
telling stories, and laughing and shouting ; 



56 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

sometimes thej were dancing; sometimes, 
as a change, thej were silent for a while. 
On occasions they would halloo at their 
horses — " Pied/^ " Jim/^ " Larry," &c. — for 
every horse had a familiar name. 

By the way, it should he ohserved that 
our friends, the Dutchmen, had New-Eng- 
land rum on board their wagons, and we 
could not refrain from thinking, from their 
noise and tricks, and antic gestures, that 
they removed some of it, to lighten their 
loads. 

But we had other troubles. As the air 
w^as damp and chilly, our " pine-needle'^ beds 
did not suffice to keep us warm ; and we 
found our situation very uncomfortable. 
We turned first one side to the fire, and 
then the other; and while half the body 
was greatly heated, the other half would 
seem to be almost frozen. 

However, the night, at length — like all 
former nights — passed away, and the day 
began to dawn. It dawned, however, to us 
on a land of masters and slaves — a thing 
entirely new to me, till I landed at Charles- 
ton. 



CAMPING OUT. 57 

The only very strange thing that hap- 
pened during the night was, that by getting 
too near the fire, in order, if possible, to 
keep warm, I burned a large hole in the 
skirt of my coat. But a hole of equal size, 
burned in the skin, would have been a more 
serious evil. 

We rose early ; not because we were suf- 
ficiently rested and restored by sleep, but 
because it was time to prepare for our jour- 
ney. After eating a few mouthfuls — for 
my appetite was not yet as good as formerly 
— we went to the spring and drank some 
water. These springs, however, in Carolina, 
are mere brooks or creeks — ver}^ sluggish 
ones, at that ; and yet they call them 
springs ; and it is true that they afford the 
best water they have in the country. The 
ponds are stagnant and poisonous, and the 
wells are little better. 

We had taken the precaution to carry 
with ns a little ginger, to mix with our 
water, to prevent its hurting us ; so wc 
mixed some with it that morning. We had 
been advised to take a quantity of Lee's 
pills with us, and to swallow one of them 



58 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

every otlicr day, in order to prevent the 
fevers ; but this we would not do. And I 
would not do it if I was to travel the coun- 
try again, a thousand times over. I would 
not even mix ginger with my water. I 
would drink the water very sparingly ; but 
what I drank should be water only, as God 
gives it. Bad as it is, it is not so bad as 
water and medicine. 



TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. 59 



CHAPTER VIIL 
TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. 

When our company, and their horses and 
mules, had breakfasted, and everything 
was in readiness, we resumed our journey. 

When we first began to move, I was so 
weak that I verily thought I should not be 
'^ble to walk a mile ; but, having dragged 
myself along one mile, I found myself no 
worse for it ; so I persevered, from mile to 
mile, till, at sunset, we had traveled about 
twenty miles. 

Our course was through a flat country — 
half wilderness, half cultivated — with here 
and there a small cotton or rice-field, and 
occasionally, at long intervals, a house. 
The houses were, usually, at a considerable 
distance from the road — sometimes quite 
out of sight — and we only knew where they 
were by the barking of a pack of saucy 
dogs, or by the appearance of gates and 
lanes, which we knew led to them. 



60 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

The second day we passed a place usually 
known by tlfe name of Monk's Corner. It 
is about fifteen miles from Charleston. 
Here, or near this place, it is said, President 
Jackson was born. It is a mere country 
neighborhood — a few houses only ; no church 
— not even a school-house. 

We saw something of slavery on the plan- 
tations. The colored men and women were 
in the fields, picking cotton ; but their mo- 
tions were so slow that they seemed to us 
more like so many old stumps than like 
living men ; except that, occasionally, they 
moved about a little ; whereas, old stumps 
do not move at all. 

A little way beyond Monk's Corner we 
saw a large number of slaves employed in 
building a new road. Did I say employed? 
They were hardly so. While actually threat- 
ened by their overseer, or smarting under 
the whip, they would occasionally throw a 
few shovels full of earth or mud ; but as 
soon as the overseer's back was turned to- 
ward them, they did little or nothing. 

I took notice of the preparations for their 
dinner. The women w^ere preparing it by 



TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. 61 

fires built at the road side. It consisted of 
rice — say two-thirds of a pint, after it was 
boiled, to each laborer ; and some of them 
had little, if anything, else. 

The. people of the country through which 
we were passing were very sickly. We 
scarcely found a house, whenever we in- 
quired, in which there was not one or more 
persons sick with the fever. When I asked 
what sort of a fever it was, some said it was 
a bilious fever ; but others said it was the 
" cold plague." Sometimes nearly the 
whole family was sick with it ; and those 
who were not sick looked as yellow as if 
they had suffered from a long course of yel- 
low fever. 

In Iraveling almost anywhere else in tlie 
United States, at this season, fruits are to 
be seen — especially the apple ; but here we 
saw no apples at all, nor but few pears and 
peaches. There had, indeed, been a few 
peaches, but they were ripe and gone. 
Keither were there any nuts in the woods ; 
or, at least, but few — some coarse acorns. 

One fruit there was, in abundance — the 
persimmon. The tree which bears it is of 



62 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

medium size, and somewhat resembles the 
white or pig-walnut. The fruit is about 
the size of a wild-plum, or, perhaps, a little 
larger. Until perfectly ripe, it is one of 
the most bitter things in the world ; and it 
never gets ripe till frost comes. After one 
or two sharp frosts, the persimmons turn 
yellow, and become soft, and drop from the 
trees. They are then almost as sweet as a 
lump of sugar, and dissolve in the moutli 
almost as easily. Eaten in small quanti- 
ties, they are, like most other fruits, whole- 
some enough ; but in large quantities they 
are apt to cloy, and derange the stomach. I 
ate them so freely, at first, that I made my 
stomach acid, and did not get over it for a 
week. 

I forgot to say that I saw a few oranges 
and limes growing in the gardens of Charles- 
ton ; but the oranges were of a very inferior 
kind. They were neither so large nor so 
perfect as those which grow in warmer 
countries. 

One of the greatest curiosities in all Car- 
olina is the immense fields of cotton. A 
large field of this plant, just ripe enough 



TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. 63 

for picking, — tliat is, when the pods are 
hurst open, — is a heaiitiful sight. Before 
we reached Columhia we saw fields of it 
containing several hundred acres each. The 
weather was chilly, and the slaves engaged 
in picking the cotton had fires in the old 
stumps, which were smoking like so many- 
chimneys. Some of the negroes were shiv- 
ering around these fires. They were thinly 
clad ; besides, they cannot endure the cold 
as well as the whites. 

There are three kinds of cotton: 1. The 
sea-island. 2. The green-seed. 3. The 
Nankeen cotton. The first kind is the best, 
but is not very much raised, except along 
the sea-shore, among the islands, and near 
the rivers. It is much taller than the other 
kinds, and its price is nearly twice as high. 

The green-seed or upland cotton is raised 
in greatest abundance. It is planted in 
rows, and hoed several times. It grows 
to the height of two or three feet. The 
flowers are of a pale yellow color, with five 
red spots at the bottom. The pods are 
rather triangular in shape, and have each 
three cells. These, when ripe, burst open, 



G4 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

and show their contents, in the midst of 
which are the seeds, somewhat resemhling 
grape seeds, only much larger. When the 
cotton has been collected, it is picked in a 
mill, turned by horses or mules. The pro- 
cess of cleaning the sea-island cotton con- 
sists in tearing the pods in pieces, and blow- 
ing or brushing away the cotton, while the 
seeds fall below, and are piled away for 
manure. This method of picking it was 
invented by Mr. Eli Whitney, of New-Ha- 
ven, Connecticut, and was a most valuable 
discovery. Before that it liad to be picked 
out with the hand, which was a very slow 
and tedious process. The upland cotton is 
picked in nearly the same manner. Of the 
Nankeen cotton there is not much raised. 

We passed, also, a few rice-fields ; and, if 
I had space, I should like to describe to you 
the process of raising this curious grain, 
which feeds half the world. Kice birds 
sometimes' attack it, while it is unripe, and 
is in a milky state, and almost destroy it. 
It is also liable to a disease, which is mani- 
fested by black spots on the kernel, and 
which renders it exceedingly poisonous. 



TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. G5 

Those who eat it are attacked with a dis- 
temper which resembles the i\.siatic cholera, 
and often carries them off in a very few 
hours. 

The best rice land will produce about 
two thousand four hundred pounds, to the 
acre ; but the average produce is much less. 
There are five kinds — the white, gold- 
Guinea, bearded, short-grained, and high- 
land. Eice was brought to Carolina above 
one hundred and sixty years ago, from the 
island of Madagascar. 

Near Granby, not many miles from Co- 
lumbia, we saw indigo growing ; or, rather, 
we saw the fields in which it had been raised 
that season. Very little of it, however, is 
cultivated in the vicinity. 

We traveled about twenty miles a day, 
on the average, which brought us to Colum- 
bia in about six days. Much of the way 
the road was partially or wholly overflowed 
by water. In some instances we were 
obliged to wade a quarter of a mile, or 
more, at a depth of from two to twelve 
inches. Sometimes we could avoid the wa- 
ter by walking on logs, or clinging to the 



QQ RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

wagon, or to fences — at least, in part. 
Travelers say they are sometimes obliged 
to swim ; but we found no such necessity. 

I have not attempted to describe all our 
various encampments ; nor is it necessary, 
since tliey were all similar to the first. We 
slept in the fields or woods five nights before 
we reached Columbia; but the pine-knots 
and logs furnished us with good fires. It 
was a wonder that we did not take cold in 
going, so much of the time, with wet feet ; 
but we contrived to dry them every night. 



COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY. 67 



CHAPTER IX. 
COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY. 

We reached Columbia about noon. This is 
a pleasant place, being much more elevated 
than the country around it, and pleasantly 
laid out into squares. It is on a plain of 
two or three miles in extent, gently slo- 
ping on every side, especially toward 
the south and east. The town was not 
large. It scarcely contained three thousand 
people. 

It is a pleasant place ; and yet you, of 
the Northern and IMiddle and Western 
States, w^ould not like it. The houses are 
not beautiful, and there is none of the 
sprightliness which you find in your own 
villages. Everything seems dull and stu- 
pid ; hardly anybody is stirring in the 
streets ; no stage-coaches, and but few pri- 
vate carriages. But worse than this, the 
water is bad, and the town is unhealthy, 
especially to us more northern people. 



68 EAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

I did not stay long in Columbia. We 
took up our march, almost immediately, for 
the canal works. These were at the falls 
of the Saluda Eiver, a little above the town. 
Some of our companions on board the " En- 
terprise" had already gone there, and we 
had other Northern friends on the spot. 
We found them drilling rocks, digging, 
blasting, &c. 

While roaming about the works we were, 
at first, exposed to accidents. Coming near 
a place where they were blasting rocks, 
but of which I had not been informed, the 
rocks exploded most violently, filling the 
air, as it were, with fragments. I ran be- 
hind a shanty — one of the huts there — to 
shelter myself from the falling pieces of 
rock ; and, to my surprise, saw near me 
the stump of a tree, somewhat decayed, but 
more than half a foot in diameter, whose 
trunk had been cut in two by a fragment 
from the quarry, and whose top had been 
precipitated into the river, on tlie bank of 
which it stood ! Suppose, said I to myself, 
it had been my trunk, instead of the trunk 
of the tree ! 



COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY, 69 

After this, wlien I came to understand 
fully the nature of the dangers which beset 
me, I was more careful where I went, though 
I did not wholly escape accidents. One of 
the company — for we stayed, during the 
night, with our friends at the works — was 
going out, in the evening, to a distant 
spring, in the woods, for a pail of water, and 
I volunteered to accompany him. We found 
the spring and procured our water ; but on 
our return, although my companion and 
guide had been to the spring in the 
night many times before, and though we 
had a lantern, we lost ourselves in the 
woods. 

Long and anxiously did we search for our 
shanty, and many and loud were our calls 
to the company ; but it was all in vain. No 
huts could be found, and no voice or sound 
could be heard, save that of the screech- 
owl. 

I had heard, or read in books, that people, 
when lost, are apt to go round and round 
in a circle, without making any real prog- 
ress on their way ; and I now found it true ; 
for, in one instance, after traveling a long 



70 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

time, in hopes of reaching our hut, we came 
round to a place where we knew, perfectly 
well, we had been about half an hour be- 
fore, but which we vainly supposed we had 
now left far behind us. 

However, we at length found our way out 
of the woods, and returned to our lodgings. 
Our companions at the "camp'' were sur- 
prised at our long absence, and almost out 
of patience in waiting for us. We told 
them our story, and joined in the general 
laugh at getting lost, so near home, and in 
a place with which one of us had so long 
been familiar. 

After a quiet night's rest we left the 
camp, to journey westward in search of 
schools. We set out on foot, which gave us 
a fine opportunity to see the country, had 
there been anything in it which was peculiar, 
to render it worthy of observation. But it 
is not there as it is in most parts of the 
United States, that we find, every two, 
three, four, or five miles, little villages ; and 
sometimes large ones. You may travel 
there fifty miles, in almost any direction, 
and not meet with a single village of any 



COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY. 71 

size. All the way from Charleston to Co- 
lumbia — a distance of nearly one hundred 
and twenty miles — we saw nothing of the 
kind, except a few houses at Monk's Cor- 
ner, and the remains of an old village, 
called Granby, near Columbia. 



72 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER X. 

ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 

Our journey westward from Columbia lay 
through a curious country, consisting of a 
mere succession of sand-hills, at first, as it 
had been about Columbia, but gradually 
changing into a pleasant hilly country, not 
unlike the Northern states. The inhab- 
itants were less sickly here than in the 
country further east and southeast. 

We stopped, during the night, at a place 
called Spring Hill. It was only a small 
neighborhood of three or" four houses, and 
perhaps a post-office. There was not even 
an inn at the place. We lodged with one 
Dr. Smith — or Schmitz, as the Dutch call 
it — a physician. 

The doctor received us kindly, gave us 
plenty of soup for supper, and a good feath- 
er-bed for a covering, while we slept. Be- 
fore we retired he asked us a thousand 
questions about the North, or, as he was ac- 



ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 73 

customed to saj, the ^^norracV^ He was 
very attentive and hospitable, in his way ; 
and, on the whole, we were much more 
comfortable with him than when on board 
the vessel, or sleeping on pine needles. 

Next morning we had soup again for 
breakfast, with a little sour milk and some 
cold Indian bread which had been baked in 
loaves. It was rather dry eating to us; 
but might have been worse. 

The next day we reached Newberry. This 
was a decent little village, with a court- 
house and several shops and stores. It is 
forty-three miles from Columbia and nearly 
one hundred and sixty from Charleston. 
Newberry is the only place, except Columbia 
and Granby, that deserves the name of vil- 
lage, in all our way from Charleston. 

Instead of being divided into counties, as 
most of the states are, further north, this 
state is divided into districts. Near the 
center of each district is a court-house, and 
sometimes, though not always, a village. 
The districts are not subdivided into town- 
ships, as our counties are ; though you may 
occasionally find small towns or villages 



74 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

scattered up and down tlie country ; but, as 
I have before said, they are few and far be- 
tween. 

We stopped a day or two only in New- 
berry, and tben proceeded westward into 
Laurens District. When about one hundred 
and eighty miles from Charleston we saw a 
large chestnut-tree — the first we had met 
with in all that country. The timber con- 
sists chiefly of pine, oak, black-jack, &c. 
But we had now arrived in a hilly country, 
much like New-England. 

As I have before intimated, there is little 
to interest the traveler in this part of the 
country. There are scarcely any curiosi- 
ties, either of nature or art. In most parts 
of the country the eye is relieved by occa- 
sional dwellings ; but here you seldom see 
a dwelling from the road in which you are 
traveling. You only see the signs of a hab- 
itation. 

You see a gate of a particular kind, lead- 
ing to a path which conducts through some 
grove, or forest, or peach-orchard, to a plan- 
tation. If you enter the gate a group of 
fierce dogs fly at you, to bark, or perhaps 



ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 77 

tear your skin. Your only safe way is to 
wait at the gate, when the dogs begin to 
threaten, till some colored man, or a com- 
pany of men, come out to meet you, and 
keep off the dogs, and " carry " you, as 
they call it, safely to the house of the mas- 
ter or mistress. 

Churches are as seldom seen as dwelling 
houses. When seen, however, they are in 
the woods, often at a long distance from 
any dwelling whatever; though, occasion- 
ally, there is near them a little grocery 
store, a post-office, or a court-house. They 
are small, unfinished, without floors often; 
and sometimes without anything in the 
shape of a pulpit. The seats are mere 
plank benches, and there are seldom enough 
of even these to accommodate more than 
two hundred people. Som e of these ch urches 
are frame buildings ; but others are built 
of logs. 

I have attended church in these buildings. 
Of course, they have no bell to call the 
people together. When the hour arrives 
the minister comes in and takes his seat, 
with a few persons around him. Others 



78 RAMBLES IN THE SOUTH. 

come in, one after another, till, in about 
half an hour, they are nearly all assembled, 
and the service begins. In this there is 
nothing very peculiar, except, perhaps, that 
the discourses, which are usually extem- 
pore, are delivered in a sing-song tone. 

Their school-houses, which we saw occa- 
sionally, were more amusing than even the 
churches. They were generally built of 
logs, and without floors. The fire-place was 
at the end, and occupied the whole of that 
part of the house. The chimney had very 
little draft, and the house was generally 
smoky. 

In passing a school-house, several boys 
might often be seen out of doors, either 
with or without their books, wandering to 
and fro, climbing the trees, or, in some few 
instances, studying their lessons. Looking 
in you might see them standing or stalking 
about, or, perhaps, reading or reciting. 
When the smoke was not too thick you 
might, perhaps, discover a class standing up 
for spelling. 

We were disposed to laugh at a few of 
their peculiarities. We had heard from our 



ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 79 

fathers that q was once called cufe, and z iz- 
zard; but were no t aware that the custom still 
remained in any part of the United States. 
But here we found it in full force. Thus, 
in spelling the word gizzard, and pronounc- 
ing each syllable as they went along, they 
would say, g-i-izzard, Giz ; izzard-a-rd, zard, 

GIZZARD. 

Some of the schools, it is true, were much 
better than others ; and so of the churches 
— particularly in the towns and villages 
and cities. I have seen as good churches 
in some parts of the southern states as at 
the north ; though not so good school-houses. 

We were greatly amused, too, with their 
manner of driving oxen, or, as they call 
them, steers. When there was but one dri- 
ver, if it happened that the steers turned 
away from him, instead of making them 
come back again by means of his voice and 
the motion of his whip, he would go round 
the opposite side of them, and drive them 
back again. Sometimes he held in his 
hand a rope, the other end of which was 
tied to the horns of one of the steers, by 
means of which he would pull him into the 



80 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

right direction. Occasionally I have seen 
two persons employed with a single yoke 
of steers — one to pull, the other to drive. 

We were glad, however, to find that the 
people of South Carolina, though very awk- 
ward teamsters, were excellent horsemen. 
I speak now, however, of the English popu- 
lation. I mean that which is descended 
from the English ; for it is not so with the 
Dutch, Irish, and Scotch. Some of the 
people whom I met with would shoot a deer, 
or almost any other wild animal, while their 
horses were carrying them at full speed. 
They would leap over ditches and fences on 
horseback, with surprising skill. They are 
very fond of hunting, and their horses seem 
to be well trained for the purpose. 

Their cattle and sheep, in this country, 
are very inferior. Indeed, they have but 
few sheep. They have more goats than 
sheep. What they keep the goats for I do 
not know, unless for their milk. The cows 
of the country are small, and give but little 
milk — that is, comparatively — and what 
they do give is, very often, of an inferior 
quality. 



JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 81 



CHAPTER XL 

JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 

I TOLD you that we came to Soutli Carolina 
to teach school. But we had arrived at an 
improper time, in one respect. It was early 
in November ; w^hereas, the schools of that 
country usually end at Christmas, and be- 
gin at New Yearns. So that it was not easy 
to procure a situation till the lapse of almost 
two months. And what should we do in 
the mean time ? 

When we left home it was our intention, 
if we failed of procuring schools, to work at 
the canal, near Columbia ; and we began 
now to think of doing so. But just as we 
were on the point of coming to such a de- 
termination, we learned that the contractors 
there had failed, and that there was, at 
present, no opportunity to secure wages for 
our labor. We thought it better, therefore, 
and even indispensable, to pursue some 
other course. 



82 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. . 

My traveling companion was slightly ac- 
quainted in Norfolk, Virginia ; and if we 
were there he thonght we could get employ- 
ment. But Norfolk was five hundred miles 
distant; and how could we go there? To 
return to Charleston and proceed by water, 
or to go from Columbia or Charleston by 
stage-coach, would be quite beyond our 
means ; for our little stock of money did 
not exceed thirty dollars. To walk thither 
would take a long time, but would be 
cheaper. 

Our decision was finally made. ^Ye re- 
solved on going by land, and on foot, to 
Norfolk. We packed all our effects which 
we could not carry in our hands, into one 
trunk, and left it at Dr. Smith's, at Spring 
Hill, to be sent to Charleston, and thence, 
by water, to Norfolk ; and having disposed 
of the balance, we set out on our long jour- 
ney. 

Two obstacles we had to encounter which 
travelers on foot do not usually meet with 
at the North and East. These were the 
deep sand, found almost everywhere, and 
numerous rivers and creeks without bridges. 



JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 83 

There was but one bridge, at that time, in 
traveling the whole distance from Newberry, 
in South Carolina, to Norfolk, in Virginia ; 
and that was over the Cape Fear, at Fay- 
ettevillo, in North Carolina. And then, 
too, there were scarcely any regular ferries 
over the rivers. As a consequence, we were 
sometimes obliged to wade through the 
streams, even in the cold month of Novem- 
ber. Luckily it was at a season when the 
water was low. 

Among the rivers and creeks we passed 
in traveling to Virginia, were the Catawba, 
Lynch's Creek, Little Lynch's Creek, Black 
River, and the Great and Little Pedee, in 
South Carolina ; and the Cape Fear, Neuse, 
Tar, Roanoke, and Chowan, in North Caro- 
lina. Some of these, in spring and winter, 
are large rivers ; but in summer and au- 
tumn the most of them become quite shal- 
low. The Neuse, for example, which is 
usually reckoned a considerable river, was 
at this time only a few feet deep. 

The country through which we traveled 
was exceedingly uninteresting. In the first 
place, there were no towns or villages — or 



84 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

almost none. Winnsborough, in Soutli Car- 
olina, is a small place, but by no means in- 
viting to the stranger. This was almost 
the only village we passed in going through 
the whole state, from Newberry to Fayette- 
ville, in North Carolina. 

Then there were no natural curiosities. 
I know of no place in the United States 
where a person can travel five hundred 
miles, in a straight direction, and meet with 
so few curiosities of nature or art. The 
only thing I now recollect which arrested 
our attention, as a curios it}^, was a place 
which is famous in the annals of American 
history, called Bleauford's Battle-Ground. 

Had there been mountains — a high bluflP 
— in sight, to break the monotony now and 
then, it would have been different ; but it 
w^as one continual succession of pine plains, 
and corn and cotton fields, and gates guard- 
ed by surly dogs; witli here and there, as I 
have before said, a log school-house, or a 
miserable church ; and, in a very few in- 
stances, a post-ofiice, and a dirty grocery or 
grog-shop. 

We traveled at the rate of about two 



JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 85 

hundred miles a week, or thirty-three and 
one third miles a day ; which, considering 
how deep the sand was, may be considered 
as pretty hard traveling. It took our time 
from the earliest hours of the morning to 
dark, or sometimes, when the moon shone, 
an hour or two afterward. Occasionally we 
were compelled to travel late, in order to 
find a stopping place ; for there were no 
taverns, and sometimes, for ten or twelve 
miles, no dwellings to he found or heard 
from. 

One night, in traveling after dark, we 
came to a considerable stream, where there 
was neither ferry nor bridge, and, strangers 
as we were, we were uncertain about the 
depth of the water. Had it been daylight 
we might have ventured to grope our way 
along through it. We hesitated for a mo- 
ment. We were anxious to go further, and 
still more unwilling to go back. 

At last we determined to retreat. It 
proved a long way back to a house ; and 
when we reached one, and attempted to 
gain admittance through the gate, we were 
assailed, most furiously, by the dogs. But 
6 



86 BAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

the servants at length came, and we were 
admitted to the house. It was a small 
dwelling, occupied by a large family ; but, 
after a little hesitation and delay, they re- 
ceived us. 

There was but one room in the whole 
house, and that, like many others in that 
part of the country, had no floor. There 
were but three beds. One of them was oc- 
cupied by the heads of the family, and a 
babe or two; another by the eldest son and 
ourselves ; and the third by a part of the 
children. The rest, with several very young 
slaves, slept around the fire, which was at a 
remote end of the building. 

I have spoken of the small size of the 
house ; but you must know that the houses 
in the Southern States are not used for the 
same purposes, in all resjoects, as our houses 
at the North and East are. The slaves 
usually live in small huts or cabins, at a 
little distance from their master's dwelling: 
and in these all tlie cooking, washing, &c., 
are done ; so that no kitchen or sink is 
needed in connection with the former. 

In the morning, after breakfast, the gen- 



JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 87 

tleman of the house went with iis to the 
creek, and taking us, one at a time, behind 
him, on his horse, carried us safely across 
it. For all his trouble, including our lodg- 
ing'^ and entertainment, he charged us noth- 
ing, and actually refused to receive any- 
thing. The only return he permitted iis to 
make was a few trifling presents to his 
children. This kind of treatment is by no 
means uncommon at the South. 

We were, at length, fairly within the 
limits of North Carolina. We stopped for 
the night at a kind of public house, famil- 
iarly known, all over that region, as Peter 
May's, near the state line. " You can 
throw a rock from my porch into South 
Carolina,^^ said our good-natured landlord. 
And we could do so, for it was only a few 
rods. However, by a rock he only meant a 
stone, or a mere fragment of rock ; for this 
is the usual manner of speaking in that vi- 
cinity. 

From Peter May's we went toward Fay- 
etteville. We were in Anson County ; but 
it made little difference to us where wo 
were, as there was nothing to interest us. 



88 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

It M^as a mere alternation of sandy plains, 
more or less covered with pine, with occa- 
sional corn-fields. We sometimes traveled 
eight or ten miles without meeting with a 
single house, or avenue leading to one. 
And when w^c came to one, it was, in gen- 
eral, a miserable log house, and without a 
floor. 

For many miles before we reached Fay- 
etteville the country was peculiarly sandy 
and poor, and thinly inhabited. Most of 
the few people we met with were, moreover, 
of Scotch descent. They w^ere too poor to 
own slaves. They had come in emigrant 
vessels to Wilmington, on Cape Fear Piiver, 
below Fayetteville, and had come up to the 
latter place, and thence scattered themselves 
over the adjacent pine forests. They lived 
in mere cabins ; but most of them contrived 
to have a garden, and to raise a pig or two, 
and some corn ; and occasionally they kept 
a cow. 

The best food we could procure of them 
was a little corn-bread, or " hoe-cake ;" a 
little pork, or bear's meat, or venison ; with 
a little honey, or perhaps a tumbler of sour 



JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 89 

milk. Their corn-bread was good and 
wholesome, but I did not like their milk or 
their meats — especially their dark-brown 
bear's meat. Custom, however, soon recon- 
ciled me to sour milk. 

One kind of bread they had which I never 
saw before, and which I have never met 
with anywhere else except in Carolina. It 
w^as called " crackling-bread." It was sim- 
ply Indian cakes, with a mixture of chopped 
lean meat. 

We came, at length, to Fayetteville. It 
was pleasant to see a " town'' once more. 
Fayetteville, at that time, contained three 
thousand five hundred inhabitants, and 
many good buildings. Among these were 
a court-house, town-house, academy, masonic 
hall, three banks, and three houses for pub- 
lic worship. But most of these last, and 
many of the dwellings, have, since that time, 
been destroyed by a great fire ; though the 
place has been, in part, rebuilt. 

Fayetteville is regularly and handsomely 
laid out, and the principal streets are at 
least one hundred feet wide. It was one of 
tlie best villages we saw in all that country. 



90 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

We did not stop liere long. We crossed 
the Cape Fear Eiver on a fine bridge, about 
a mile beyond Fayetteville. The river here 
is narrow, but deep, and very dark colored. 
It is a noble stream, however. Steamboats 
from Wilmington — eighty or one hundred 
miles distant — come as far as this bridge. 

The next village of any note we saw was 
Tarborough. It stands on Tar Eiver, and 
contains, perhaps, a hundred houses. Like 
most of the villages in those states, how- 
ever, it has a dull aspect, and is far enough 
from being flourishing. It is about sixty 
miles eastward of Ealeigh. 

Here a circumstance occurred which may 
be worth relating. As we turned a corner 
we saw several men in a grocery, drinking 
and smoking. Stopping a moment to in- 
quire about the road, one of them said, 
" That man is a nor^ard man ;'' and turning 
to me, "A'n't you a nor'ard man ?'^ says he. 
I told him I was. "So am I," said he. 
" Two jolly fellows well met," he added. 
" Come, stranger, brotlier nor'ard man, 
what will you have to drink ?" I told him 
I did not wish for anything to drink. 



JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 91 

^'Wliat, not drink with a brother nor^'ard 

man !" said he. " But you must, and you 

shall. Landlord, give us something to 

take." 

By this time my fellow-traveler, who 

knew the world — at least this part of it — 

better than I, began to be uneasy ; and 

finding me lingering, as if to drink with 

the man, he almost forced me away. 

" Strange," said he, " that you should enter 

into conversation, and, above all, think of 

drinking with such wretches. That drunk- 
o 

ard only calls himself a northward man to 
lure you into the company, and, perhaps, rob 
you of your money." 

These words, uttered in a low voice, were 
sufficient. The single word rob had opened 
my eyes, and I was as glad to proceed as he 
was. But, in order to succeed in breaking 
the spell completely, my friend added: "We 
may think ourselves well off if those vil- 
lains do not waylay us to-night, and rob us 
of all we have." 

That " all," it is true, was not very much ; 
nevertheless, it could not very conveniently 
be spared. But he needed to say no more. 



92 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

I saw my folly. We traveled now with 
greater speed than before ; so that, though 
it was nearly night, we stayed at a consid- 
erable distance from Tarborough ; indeed, 
so far that w^e did not believe any villains 
would follow us. 

It was well for me that I had a friend 
with me at Tarborough. I do not think I 
should, otherwise, have been murdered ; 
and yet there is no certainty that I might 
not have been. I should, very likely, have 
been plundered. As I have before intima- 
ted, my companion had been in that coun- 
try before. Such a friend, in our first 
adventures in the world, is of great service 
to us ; and I do not wonder that those 
wealthy fathers who are about to send out 
their sons to Europe, Asia, or Africa, for 
the benefits of travel, so often accompany 
them. 

My friend, moreover, had learned, better 
than I, one of the great lessons of life 
which, above almost all others, we must 
learn, viz., to " mind well our own business,'^ 
both at home and abroad ; but especially 
in the latter case. Many of the evils which 



JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 93 

young men fall into, among bad or doubt- 
ful company, migbt be avoided, would they 
give heed to it. 

Great quantities of pitch and tar are 
manufactured in these forests, from the 
abundance of pine trees. There are also 
large quantities of hogs raised for the mark- 
et, and the pork is, by many, considered 
as peculiarly excellent. It goes to New- 
born, Norfolk, and other markets. 



94 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XII. 
ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 

We were, at length, approaching the confines 
of the " Old Dominion ;" I mean, of course, 
the state of Virginia. We had crossed the 
Eoanoke, on whose banks we saw a field of 
corn which was said, by some, to be a mile 
square; and, by others, to contain at least 
a thousand acres. We had seen corn so 
tall that a very tall man could not reach 
the ears while standing on the ground near 
them. We had also crossed the Chowan, 
near the boundary of the states of Virginia 
and North Carolina. 

We had been more than two weeks on 
our journey, and were much fatigued. 
Most glad were we to see, in the distance, 
the spires of a village which we soon learned 
was Portsmouth, directly opposite to Nor- 
folk, where is a navy-yard. We crossed 
Elizabeth River at Portsmouth, and soon 
found ourselves in the borouoh of Norfolk. 



ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 95 

Norfolk stands on Elizabeth Eiver, about 
eight miles from its entrance into Hampton 
Eoads, and contains about ten thousand in- 
habitants. It has several churches, two or 
three banks, a marine hospital, a theater, 
an academy, an orphan asylum, and an 
athenaeum. It also contains many good 
dwelling-houses, especially in the northern 
part of it; but the houses in general are 
not elegant, by any means. Some of the 
streets are low and dirty. 

AVell, here we were in Norfolk. Our first 
inquiry was for our trunk, which we had 
ordered from Spring Hill for this place ; 
but it had not arrived. Our next step was 
to seek for employment ; for our purses 
were getting very low indeed. But, pre- 
liminary to all this, we needed a boarding- 
house. 

There lived in the borough, in one of the 
low, dirty streets, an elderly gentleman 
from the North, who kept a grocery store, 
and a few boarders. He was a kind old 
man, but not very respectable; though of 
this latter circumstance I was ignorant till 
some time afterward. My friend was aware 



96 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

of tlie fact, but, in his zeal and haste to 
economize, he quite overlooked it. This old 
gentleman I shall call Mr. Brown, and pro- 
ceed to give you a few facts concerning 
him. 

Mr. Brown, in his early days, had been 
one of those traveling tin-peddlers of whom 
I have before spoken. He had been, at 
first, industrious and virtuous, temperate 
and happy. He had even been prudent and 
economical, and, in tin-peddlers' style of 
speaking, had " made money." But, being 
greatly solicitous of getting money faster 
than he could as a common mechanic, and 
the tin-peddling business coming on, and 
inducing, at first, a kind of gold fever, Mr. 
Brown embarked in it. In other words, away 
he went to the Southern States, where he 
spent his winters, and sometimes his sum- 
mers, for many years. 

Por a time, too, he " made money.'' But 
" light come, light go," is an old proverb, 
and one which very often proves to be true ; 
and his easily-gained money was as easily 
lost. He acquired a habit of spending 
money three or four times as readily as be- 



ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 97 

fore, and also of spending a great deal of 
time in idleness and amusement. At home 
at the North he had been accustomed to 0:0 
twice or three times a year to " trainings'' 
— militia musters ; once to " Independence,'^ 
and once or twice " a fishing," or " a squir- 
reling ;" and these were his only holidays. 
But now he had some forty or fifty holidays, 
or rather play-days, every year. There 
was the " horse-race," or the " cock-fight,'^ 
or " a treat ;" or some great personage was 
coming along, like " the President," or 
''Lafayette ;" or there was to be a party for 
sailing, riding, or hunting, or for card-play- 
ing or gambling, or something still worse. 

Mr. Brown, I say, like many easy young 
Northerners, soon fell into these wretched 
habits ; and it was not long before he began 
to lose ground, both in property and repu- 
tation. In short, he became, in a few years, 
quite reduced, and was obliged to keep a 
few boarders, and sell a few groceries, just 
to gain a livelihood. A few Northern 
people who pitied him, and a few people of 
low reputation, would board with him ; and 
a few of the meanest citizens, who were 



98 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

half ashamed to show their heads anywhere 
else, would trade with him. 

Of the class of Northern friends who 
boarded with him — partly out of pity to 
him — my friend and traveling companion 
had formerly heen one. He therefore pro- 
posed to take me with him, and go there 
again ; to which I unwittingly, or rather 
unwisely assented. 

But I soon found we had made a very 
serious mistake. The house, which had 
never been reputable, as I have already said, 
was fast losing the little credit it had once 
sustained. It was frequented by very few 
but the worthless, the intemperate, and the 
licentious. True, it was not a very expen- 
sive house ; and this, in our circumstances, 
was a matter of some importance. 

The question became a serious one — what 
should we do ? It was at length concluded 
to engage in an employment which would, 
for the most part, lead us away from Nor- 
folk ; except that we should, occasionally, 
return there, as a sort of home ; and as a 
rallying point, or home, Mr. Brown's would 
do very well. 



ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 99 

It would have "been better for us, no 
doubt — better for our credit, if not for our 
]3urses — had we abandoned Mr. Brown^s at 
once and forever; and, with my present 
knowledge of men and things, I certainly 
should do so. And I advise every reader 
who may be similarly situated, where the 
question is one of economy merely, to waive 
all considerations of this kind, if the eco- 
nomical course is likely, in any way, to en- 
danger his reputation. Lost money is much 
more easily replaced than lost reputation. 

It is indeed true that I was absent, the 
greater part of the time, for three or four 
months ; so that I escaped the sight of much 
which I might otherv/ise have witnessed. 
And yet, as will be seen in another place, 
unforeseen circumstances compelled me to 
behold much which was shocking to any 
but the most hardened. 

Eor how many scenes of Sabbath-break- 
ing have I witnessed from the window of 
my chamber at Mr. Brown's ! How many 
have I seen strolling the streets on this day, 
conversing on the lightest, if not the most 
foolish matters, and in the lightest possible 



100 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

manner ! Nay, more ; how often have I 
witnessed, on Sunday, smoking, swearing, 
and staggering ! And how often, on other 
days, have these eyes of mine beheld scenes 
at which unperverted humanity and un- 
contaminated purity must recoil and even 
shudder ! 

You may say, perhaps, " But you were 
not injured by the misconduct of others. 
You were not obliged to have anything to 
do with them.'^ No, I was not ; and yet I 
was injured, more or less. It could not 
have been otherwise. No young man of 
only twenty-two years of age — let his habits 
be ever so correct or well-established — can 
witness these things, and yet remain unin- 
jured. He may think so, and even his 
friends may think so ; but they are mis- 
taken. 

Some think the army and the navy — 
perhaps, too, the city — a fine school for 
the young — the best in the world. How 
strange ! Hovr many thousands have been 
ruined by the prevalence of this mistaken 
notion ! No doubt some persons are made 
better by any or all these things, just as 



ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 101 

some children are hardened by being da3dy 
plunged, from their very birth, in cold 
water, even in midwinter. In either case, 
however, evil is done ten times as often as 
good. There is quite enough of temptation 
and trial connected with the most virtuous 
and quiet home of the j^oung, without send- 
ing them to the army, navy, or city. 

There are a few lines in print somewhere, 
which are very much in point, and which, 
if you have never seen, you may do wisely 
to con over, at your leisure ; and if you 
have any friends or neighbors who believe 
that the army is the best school in the 
world, it may be useful for you to repeat 
them in their hearing. They are these : — 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As to be hated needs but to be seen ; — 
Yet seen too oft, familiar to the face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.^'' 

7 



102 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FOOL-HARDINESS. 

You have heard, perhaps, of fool-hardiness. 
Do you know what it is? I hope you do 
not know by experience. I hope you have 
never been guilty of it. And yet I have 
been, in at least one instance. 

Mr. Brown's being my home, as I have 
before told you, I made excursions from 
Norfolk into the country, during the winter 
and spring. Sometimes I rambled away a 
hundred miles or more ; sometimes not more 
than twenty or thirty, or forty. 

One of the first of these journeys was 
toward North Carolina. It was about 
twenty-five miles. When night came on I 
stopped at an inn, kept by a colored man 
whose name was Anthony. It was the only 
public house for many miles round ; so that 
I had " Hobson's choice " — that or none. 

This colored man was, in general, consid- 
ered respectable. He had once been a 



FOOL-HARDINESS. 103 

slave, but by hard work had bought his free- 
dom, and that of his family. By continued 
industry he had also acquired considerable 
property, all of which he had invested in a 
house for the accommodation of travelers. It 
was by the wayside, and in a lonely place ; 
but had given rest and entertainment to 
many a weary traveler besides myself 

Among those who stopped there that 
night were several North Carolina team- 
sters. Some of them were noisy and clamor- 
ous. They had taken too much rum, or some 
other intoxicating drink, and were neither 
disposed to be quiet themselves, nor to suf- 
fer others to be so. 

The house was not such a house as you 
generall}^ see in the Northern States. It 
was made of logs, and had but few rooms. 
The best room for travelers was what you 
would have called the bar-room. It was a 
large hall, with a number of beds at one 
end, and a fire-place at the other. Between 
the beds and the fire-place were several long 
seats, or settees. Some, however, were mere 
wooden benches. 

I was directed to occupy a bed in the cor- 



104: RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

iier of this apartment. When I was ready 
to retire I set down my effects — for I had a 
trunk of valuable goods with me — near the 
head of my bed, and, as if I had no fears 
for my safety, threw down my clothes upon 
them, and tumbled into bed. The wagon- 
ers, who were telling stories and singing- 
songs around the fireside, appeared to take 
no notice of me. 

I spoke of appearing to have no fears. 
The truth is I was not a little apprehensive 
of danger ; but then I thought it would do 
no good, and, on the contrary, very much 
harm, to have my fears known to the rest 
of the company. 

I remembered well the story of a man in 
Connecticut whom, in early life, I well knew. 
He had been to Ohio, and was on his return 
to the east with a large sum of money. 
The safest way he could think of was to put 
it in an old pair of saddle-bags, and when 
he stopped for the night at a place, just 
throw down the saddle-bags in the corner 
of the room, or kick them under the table, 
and leave them there till morning. The 
plan succeeded most admirably. 



FOOL-HARDINESS. 105 

I did not fall asleep immediately after 
retiring, I assure you. . But finding that no 
one took any notice of me, my fears at 
length diminished, and finally subsided. I 
hegan to think, moreover, that the danger 
was far less than I had supposed. And then, 
in addition to all this, I was greatly fatigued 
and quite stupid. 

And, to crown the whole, I had made 
one capital error ; and it was in this that I 
was guilty of fool-hardiness. Just before I 
retired, I had called for a draught of whis- 
ky. The landlord brought me a tumbler- 
ful, and I swallowed nearly the whole of it. 

You shudder, perhaps, at the thought; 
and so do I. But it was before the days 
of temperance came on, when it was very 
generally thought that alcoholic drinks, to 
persons over-fatigued, were useful ; and I 
had, inadvertently, fallen into this popular 
error. 

It was wrong in me, however, to drink 
the whisky, for two reasons. First, I did 
not need it to cure fatigue, when I had a 
good bed before me. Besides, had I needed 
any, I could not have required so much; 



106 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

for such a large dose, when its immediate 
efiPects were over, must have made me very- 
stupid ; so that had any one attempted to rob 
me, he might have easily succeeded. Half a 
dozen robbers would hardly have aroused me. 

However, as a kind Providence would 
have it, no one meddled either with me or 
my effects. I slept soundly and sweetly. 
How long the noise and confusion continued, 
I never knew. When I opened my eyes in 
the morning, no one had stirred from his 
slumbers. 

I had now not only a fine opportunity, 
but a good disposition to. look over the con- 
duct of the preceding evening. I remem- 
bered the many stories I had previously 
heard of robberies and murder in this very 
region, and I wondered that I was still in 
the land of the living. I wondered, at 
least, that I had not been robbed of every- 
thing I had. 

But I wondered, most of all, at my fool- 
hardiness in drinking such a large draught 
of whisky. And I wonder now that I, 
then a young man, should have drank any. 
It did me no good in the end, but much 



FOOL-HARDINESS. 107 

hurt. I wonder, also, that I did not make 
my arrangements so as to prevent the ne- 
cessity of stopping at a public house which 
had not so good a reputation as it should 
have had. I refer not here to the fact that 
it was kept by a colored man, for that had 
nothing to do with its reputation. But 
Anthony was not a man of order, and his 
house was a disorderly house, to say nothing 
of its intemperance. And though it was 
generally counted a reputable house, it 
ought not to have been. 



108 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
THE SHIPWRECK AND OTHER ADVENTURES. 

In another instance I made an excursion to 
Suffolk, a village twentj-eiglit or thirty 
miles westward of Norfolk. 

Suffolk is on the Nansemond Eiver, a 
small stream emptying into Hampton 
Eoads ; so that vessels of considerable size 
may go down the Elizabeth River from 
Norfolk to Hampton Roads, and thence up 
the river Nansemond to Suffolk. The jour- 
ney by water is a little longer than by land ; 
but as a vessel was about ready to sail, I 
concluded to take passage in her. 

We set out toward night, and had a 
pleasant time till we got into Hampton 
Eoads, and had begun to ascend Nansemond 
River. Then we encountered head winds 
and a somewhat strong current, with a re- 
ceding or ebbing tide. Our progress, there- 
fore, was slow. Darkness at length came 
on and found us only half-way up the river, 



THE SHIPWRECK. 109 

and the wind not only " dead aliead," as the 
sailors say, but very strong. It soon blew 
a 2:ale, and embarrassed us exceedino-lv. 
There was quite a snow-storm. 

The captain and sailors did all they could 
to " beat" their way against wind and cur- 
rent ; but it was all to no purpose. Hour 
after hour they toiled without gaining a 
single mile. At length we were driven up- 
on a sand-bar, where we could neither go 
forward nor backward ; and the passengers 
cried out that we were shipwrecked. 

It was, indeed, a sort of shipwreck ; and 
yet it was not accompanied by very much 
danger; for, as the vessel was not injured, 
all we had to do was to wait patiently till 
the tide should rise, when it would be easy 
to get off; and if the wind was at all favor- 
able, we should soon be in Suffolk. We 
therefore went to bed, and were soon 
asleep. 

The next morning the wind had subsided 
and the tide had risen ; so that all we had 
to do was to make the best of our way up 
the river. Our progress was very slow ; but 
before noon we found ourselves safely at 



110 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

anchor in Suffolk harhor, close by one of 
the principal wharves. 

We landed safely, and went to our re- 
spective places of destination. I went to a 
public house, kept by Captain Smith, a 
jSTorthern man. Here I stayed several 
days ; and here, being in the midst of 
fashionable company, I fell into another 
practical error. 

It was the custom at Captain Smith's to 
drink a little French brandy at dinner. 
Such a thing I had never before witnessed. 
It was quite a curiosity, and I had a strong 
desire to make an experiment. Besides, it 
was quite a current maxim in the world at 
that time, as I greatly fear it still is. When 
you are among Eomans you must do as the 
Eomans do. 

I concluded, therefore, to take a little 
brandy. It was only a short time — a week 
or two — that I persisted in this foolish cus- 
tom ; and after I left Captain Smith's I 
never returned to it. I do not know that 
I experienced any personal inconvenience 
from it ; and yet, to this hour, I shudder at 
the thought of the risk I run. 



THE SHIPWRECK. Ill 

Do you ask what the risk was? Why, 
in few words, that of becoming a drunkard. 
Men do not become drunkards at once, any 
more than a river begins, at once, to be a 
river. The latter begins by a great many 
little streams ; and so, in general, does the 
river of intemperance. And if I had gone 
on in the habit of drinking a little French 
brandy at dinner, I might, probably, have 
increased the quantity by degrees, till I 
had become quite enslaved to it ; and then, 
when enslaved to the habit of drinking 
freely at dinner, I should most certainly 
have fallen into the habit of drinking at 
other times ; and it is highly probable I 
should have ended a drunkard. 

It was while I was in Suffolk, at this 
time, that a woman there showed me the 
silver toddy-stick, of which I have elsewhere 
spoken, for which she paid a peddler twelve 
dollars. If it ever had any silver about it, 
the value of the whole could not have been 
twenty-five cents. It must have been a 
mere wash, or, as the books would say, a 
thin coating. 

While I was boarding at Captain Smith's, 



112 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

I witnessed a scene wliicli was new to me 
entirely. I had been in the country many 
months, and seen many things very un- 
pleasant, in connection with slavery ; but I 
had never before seen a slave cruelly beat- 
en. The case was as follows : — 

A boy, fourteen or fifteen years of age, 
had been sent to the spring for a tub of 
water. He was gone longer than Captain 
Smith had expected, and probably long- 
er than was necessary. At last he came 
in, with the tub of water on his head, and 
his master inquired why he had been gone 
so long. "Another boy came," said he, "and 
would not let me go to the spring.'^ " You 
have been at play, then, you rascal," said 
Captain Smith. " I ^11 teach you to come 
directly back when I send you for water." 
So saying, he took a whip, and with the 
heavy but-end beat him over the head till 
I thought he would break his skull ; and I 
was obliged to leave the room. In my 
agony I went into the garden. 

My distress had been observed, and Cap- 
tain Smith soon followed me. His ra^e had 
subsided in part but he still quivered, 



THE SHIPWRECK. 113 

*^ If I am miserable in the next world/' said 
he, " it will be because I have these crea- 
tures to deal with.'' " But is there no other 
way of getting along than this ?" I said. 
" No other," was the reply. I did not be- 
lieve it ; and I still have the same opinion. 
I have seen too much of slaves and slavery 
to doubt at all on this subject. However, 
it was difficult for Captain Smith, with his 
ungoverned temper, to avoid such acts of 
cruelty. But he should have kept his 
body in subjection. He should not have 
been a master till he could control his 
temper. 

You have heard, perhaps, of Lorenzo 
Dow, the traveling preacher. He was a 
very eccentric man. He not only preached 
in all parts of the United States, but went 
several times to Europe. While I was in 
Suffolk he came there, with his wife Peggy, 
and preached several times. The greatest 
crowds of old and young, but especially the 
latter, flocked to hear him. There was little 
in his preaching, however, that was. pecul- 
iarly striking and important. He was oft- 
en witty, and made people laugh. What 



114 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

was most striking, in regard to liim, was 
Lis eccentric manner. 

I returned from Suffolk to Norfolk bj 
land. It was not a part of my plan to go 
back in a day ; but I was sorry I did not ; 
for the public bouse wbere I put up bad a 
very suspicious appearance, and, as I after- 
ward learned, was of a very suspicious char- 
acter. 

My suspicions were excited by what I saw 
during the evening, much more than by the 
many flying reports which prevailed abroad; 
for these, at that time, had hardly reached 
my ears. A young Frenchman, who had 
also stopped there, had fears, as well as my- 
self. When we came to retire, we were 
shown to rooms which opened into a "com- 
mon hall; and though, till now, we were 
perfectly strangers to each other, we under- 
stood each other's feelings perfectly well, 
and mutually agreed to leave our doors 
open, that we might render aid to each 
other, if necessary. Happily we were not 
disturbed. 

Nothing further occurred, during this tour 
to Suffolk, worthy of notice. I returned to 



THE SHIPWRECK. 115 

my lodgings in Norfolk, where I remained 
a day or two, and tlien took my departure 
in quite another direction, and on a much 
longer excursion. 

It is surprising to observe how deep and 
lasting impressions on the human mind 
sometimes are. I met the young French- 
man of whom I have spoken, several weeks 
afterward, in Norfolk ; and no man, I am 
sure, ever seemed more joyful at meeting 
another than he was at meeting with me. 
He shook me by the hand till his friendly 
salutations almost fatigued me. Mutual 
danger had bound us together — the French- 
man, at least, to the American — with a 
cord not easily broken. 



116 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MY IMPRISONMENT AND SINGULAR LIBERATION. 

On one occasion I went about fifty or sixty 
miles into the interior of Virginia, to sell 
some goods for a man. At that time I was 
ignorant with regard to the law of licenses 
— as much so as a mere child — and my 
employer had given me no particular infor- 
mation. All I thought of was to avail my- 
self of any lawful and honest means which 
offered for procuring a livelihood, and en- 
abling me to get safely home again to the 
North. 

I had traveled a few days, in pursuance 
of my employment, when, one Saturday even- 
ing, I found myself at the house of a very 
worthy family, on the banks of one of the 
streams that enter into the Chesapeake Bay, 
quite to the north of York Eiver. Here 1 
received an invitation to spend the Sabbath, 
which I gladly accepted. 

Just after breakfast was finished, on- 



MY IMPRISONMENT. 117 

Monday morning, my kind host said to 
me, "Have you a license to sell these 
goods ?'^ I frankly told him no ; and that 
I did not know that any license was needed. 
" O yes," said he, " most certainly it is. 
You cannot sell goods not manufactured in 
the state without a license, even if the 
quantity is ever so small." I was agitated 
exceedingly. He perceived my agitation. 
I said, "Then, sir, I must stop my busi- 
ness ; for I cannot afford to buy a license. 
I will go home to Norfolk, I think, and 
discontinue at once. I thank you for all 
your hospitalities. Good morning, sir." 

I was about to take my leave — abrupt as 
it would have been, for I was greatly agi- 
tated — when he stopped me. " You must 
not go," he said. " I am a custom-house 
officer, and am under oath to take notice of 
all infractions of our laws ; and you have 
broken the law in regard to licenses, and 
must remain with me a prisoner." 

As you may easily suppose, I was much 
alarmed. He endeavored, in a very gentle- 
manly manner, to soothe me, as well as he 
could ; for, though stern, he was kind. He 
8- 



118 RAMBLES IN THE SOUTH. 

said, at length, that if I would go with him 
to the court-house that day, and purchase a 
license of the sheriff of the county, he would 
let the past go ; but, otherwise, I must sub- 
mit to the righteous sentence of the law, 
whatever that might be. He then left me 
with his family, and went out. 

As soon as my feelings would permit, i 
told them the history of my disappointments 
in South Carolina, and of my return home- 
ward as far as Norfolk ; that I had ordered 
ni}' trunk of clothes to be sent, by way of 
Charleston, to Norfolk, but had not received 
them ; and that I feared they were in the 
ship " Ocean," from that port, which had just 
been lost. In short, without the slightest 
exaggeration, my story was such as to ex- 
cite pity. They gathered around me, and, 
notwithstanding the stern tenor of the law, 
I sold them, most readily, many dollars* 
worth of my goods ; and one of the young 
ladies actually put a considerable sum of 
money in my hand over and beyond my de- 
mands. 

Their conduct surprised me ; but my sur- 
prise was to be excited still more, ere long; 



MY IMPRISONMENT. 119 

for the father now came in and said that I 
must cross the river, in his boat, to the 
court-house, and see the sheriff; and what- 
ever lenity he chose to exercise, I should be 
welcome to. " But,'^ said he, " you must be 
in haste ; my boat is ready, and there is no 
time to be lost/' 

When I lingered a little, to return my 
thanks, they only took me by the arm, and 
hurried me along to the boat. I was soon 
seated, and the boatmen were plying their 
oars. I saw, at a distance, a vessel under 
sail, but I had not the least thought we were 
going to her. I supposed we were going to 
the other side, to see the sheriff of the 
county. 

In truth, I was surprised almost beyond 
measure when I found them approaching 
the vessel with all speed. I was about to 
ask an explanation, but the boatmen made 
signs to have me remain silent, saying they 
were only executing their master's orders. 
We were soon alongside of the vessel, and I 
was put on board, with all my effects. 

And now, reader — will you believe it ? — 
this vessel was a well-known packet, bound 



120 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

from that neighborhood to Norfolk ; and, 
under pretense of carrying me to the sheriff, 
they had been privately ordered to send me 
off to Norfolk ! Was not this a most sin- 
gular escape? 

We were in Norfolk early next morning 
— all safe. The whole of the circumstances, 
however, seemed to me like a dream. I 
could not account for it, except on the sup- 
position that my story had excited the pity 
of the family, and the young people had 
prevailed with their father to permit them 
to send me away. 

I never saw them more, except a single 
member of the family — a young man — 
though I never shall forget them, I assure 
you. I met the young man of whom I 
have just spoken in Norfolk, some two 
months afterward, who kindly inquired if I 
had ever received my trunk, and seemed 
sorrowful when I answered him in the neg- 
ative. 

In fact, I never did receive the trunk at 
Norfolk. Dr. Smith, with whom I left it, 
was not careful to forward it, and it re- 
mained under his roof for almost a year. 



MY IMPRISONMENT. 121 

At last, a gentleman from the North un- 
dertook to look it up for me, and forward it 
to me at my home at the North ; for which 
very kind and praiseworthy conduct he 
received my thanks, and a reasonable re- 
ward. 

Thus ended a very unusual adventure ; — 
unusual, at least, with me. It was the first 
time — as it proved to be the last — of my 
being threatened with arrest as a criminal, 
and deprived of my liberty to go Avhere I 
pleased. It should have taught me wisdom. 
How poor a scholar I was will be seen here- 
after. 



122 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

STORY OF TOM COOKE. 

I AM not fond of nicknames ; but the per- 
sonage to whom I have applied one, at the 
head of this chapter, was so unworthy of a 
better, that I have ventured for once. The 
circumstances occurred about a hundred 
miles from Norfolk, when I was on one of 
mj longest excursions. 

It was nearly sunset when I came, one 
day, to a small, neat plantation, a little 
way from one of the branches of York Eiver, 
near its source. It was in a part of the 
state which was very thinly settled, and, 
as I was afraid I could not reach another 
plantation before dark, I called and asked 
for accommodations for the night. The 
people at first hesitated, but at length com- 
plied with my request. 

The family was small, but, for anything 
I could discover, was respectable. Like 
other Virginia families, they were, at all 



STORY OF TOM COOKE. 123 

events, very sociable, and disposed to treat 
me with as mucli apparent kindness as if I 
liad not been a stranger. 

But I had not been half an hour in the 
house before an old man was seen approach- 
ing, through the lane ; and, on looking out 
of the window, attentively, for several sec- 
onds — " 0,'^ said my host — whom, for the 
present, I shall call Mr. Lee — " it is uncle 
Tom Cooke." 

Presently the stranger arrived. A ser- 
vant was sent — as one had been when I ar- 
rived — to keep the dogs away ; and the old 
gentleman was hospitably received and kind- 
ly treated. He certainly could put on a very 
venerable appearance, as well as be truly 
polite. I could not, however, help observing 
that Mr. and Mrs. Lee did not treat him 
with all that fondness which he manifested 
wdth regard to them ; though I did not so 
much as suspect the true reason. 

And why should I have been suspicious ? 
They called him uncle, very familiarly ; and 
I supposed the word uncle, out of the pre- 
cints of New-England, meant something. 
How little I then thought that the foolish 



124 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

practice of calling almost every old man — 
even tlioiigli he is an old villain — by this 
title, had reached Virginia. 

In the progress of the evening, the old 
man became quite communicative; and I 
could not help being pleased, in general, 
with his conversation. But he proved, in 
the end, as disagreeable as he had been at 
first amiable. He became quite too inquisi- 
tive. He asked me too many questions 
about my business and my circumstances. 

Through mv own weakness — for I was at 
that time much younger and less guarded, 
in such circumstances, than I now am — he 
found I had with me several hundred dol- 
lars' worth of property, besides a little 
money. This was of no great consequence 
to a robber, I knew ; but it was something. 
His manner, at length, made me very sus- 
picious ; and, I must confess, I could not 
help wishing I was fairly clear of him. 

Yet, after all, I could hardly believe him 
to be a villain. How could the people — I 
said to myself — permit him to stay in the 
house, if he was a bad man ? Besides, he 
was really intelligent. His handwriting — 



STORY OF TOM COOKE. 125 

which, in the progress of the evening, he 
took pains to exhibit — was, for a person fifty 
years of age, uncommonly excellent. 

The hour of retiring to rest at last came, 
and, as I was greatly fatigued, I was not 
sorry. But judge of my surprise, reader, 
if you can, when uncle Tom Cooke and I 
were requested, if willing, to sleep in the 
same hed. ! To consent was, as I thought, 
to expose myself to he plundered, and per- 
haps murdered. And yet I dared not re- 
fuse, lest it should excite suspicion of my 
fears, and bring on me the very evil I most 
feared. 

To add to my fears, moreover, the room 
which was assigned us was not only on the 
ground-floor of the building, but was quite 
at one end, and had a sort of back door, 
through which its occupants might easily 
retreat, without disturbing those who slept 
in other parts of the house. 

But we went to bed. As my custom was, 
I took my effects — all I had with me — to 
my room, and set them down near the foot 
of the bed. On them, and a chair that stood 
near them, I threw my clothes ; endeavoring 



126 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

to act as tliougli I had no suspicion what- 
ever. 

I did not easily sleep, as you may guess. 
I ruminated long on the conversation and 
conduct of the evening, and watched, with 
almost hreathless anxiety, the time when 
my companion would get to sleep. At last 
he appeared to have given the reins, very 
fairly, to Morpheus; and it was not long 
after this before I followed his example. 

About the middle of the night I heard 
him up, and groping about the room. 
"What do you want?'^ I said, very boldly. 
He made an apology for disturbing me — 
said he wished to go out a moment, but 
could not readily find the door, &c., &c. At 
last the door was found, and he went out. 

He was out a considerable time. When 
he came in he seemed disposed to play his 
old game again — that of feeling about the 
room. But when I spoke boldly, and asked 
him some question or other, he immediately 
came to bed. There was no more disturb- 
ance till morning ; neither was there, on my 
part, at least, much more sleep. 

When we rose in the morning, I embraced 



STORY OF TOM COOKE. 127 

an early opportunity to examine my effects. 
Nothing was gone. Everything was just 
as I left it at the moment of retiring. And 
if I was ever thankful for what I regarded 
as a hair-breadth escape, it was on that oc- 
casion. 

We breakfasted in due season — uncle 
Tom Cooke and all. Having done so, I 
bade them all good-morning, thanked Mr. 
and Mrs. Lee for their hospitality, — for they 
refused all pecuniary compensation, — and 
proceeded on my journey. 

At the distance of a mile or so I came to 
Mr. White's. The thought struck me, as I 
approached the house, I will go in and ask 
them to explain, if they can, the riddle. So 
I went in, and began, very cautiously, to 
make inquiries about uncle Tom Cooke. 

No words can express the apparent sur- 
prise, at Mr. White's, when I told them I 
had just -come from Mr. Lee's, and had 
slept, during the night, with uncle Tom. 
" It is a wonder of mercy," said they, " you 
are alive. Why, that old wretch of whom 
you speak, and with whom you say you 
slept, is one of the greatest villains in the 



128 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

whole State of Virginia. He is only just 
now out of the state-prison. Why, he will 
take a man's life, at any time, for six- 
pence.'^ 

Suspicious though I had all along heen 
of the old man, I was hardly prepared to 
believe all this. They seemed, at first, like 
those that mocked. But, on a little further 
inquiry, I was compelled to the belief that 
they told me nothing more than the naked 
truth, and that I had, indeed, escaped by 
the merest hair's breadth. 

What has become of uncle Toih Cooke, 
or of the family who entertained him and 
me, I do not know. It is more than probable 
that uncle Tom himself has ere this time fin- 
ished his earthly career of iniquity ; for he 
was then an old man, and many long years 
have passed away since I saw him. Alas ! 
what an account must such a man have to 
render, if he comes to the bar of God with- 
out repentance. 



THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS. 129 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS AND THEIR DOGS. 

Not very far distant from the place where 
I met with uncle Tom Cooke, I visited the 
miserable remains of an ancient tribe of 
Indians, called the Pamunkey Indians. 

My readers may know, already, that York 
Eiver, in Virginia, is formed by two princi- 
pal branches — the Pamunkey and the Mat- 
topany ; but they are not, probabl}^, all of 
them aware that along the banks of these 
rivers, in the very heart of the state, there 
are, even now, the remnants of several 
tribes of Indians. Few of them, however, 
deserve the name of Indians, so mingled are 
they with other nations by intermarriage. 
Some are partly African, others partly Eu- 
ropean, or rather, as I should say, Virginian. 

The Pamunkey s are among these old 
tribes. They reside on the Pamunkey Eiv- 
er. Their place of residence is called Old- 
town. It is almost an island, formed by a 



130 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

bend of the river; for the river, at the 
place, winds ahout in such a manner that 
there is only a narrow neck, of a few rods 
in width, across to the island, or, as I 
should perhaps call ■ , peninsula. I entered^ 
the town about one o'clock in the afternoon. 
The following are extracts from the journal 
which I kept of the visit : — 

" This island, or peninsula, consists of 
several acres of land, some of which is very 
good indeed ; and it is all very level. It is 
quite populous, containing more than thirty 
log huts, or rather cabins ; and is inhabited 
by the most curious intermixture of every 
color and class of people. 

" They are generally very poor, and live 
much on fish, wild fowls, and quadrupeds ; 
though a few of them raise corn, cotton, &c. 
In truth, several families among them live 
much in the style and manner of the lower 
class of the Virginians ; but are most mis- 
erably dissipated. They are not only bad 
themselves, but they have very many bad 
neighbors among the whites. They are 
hospitable and social, but are much addicted 
to drunkenness." 




MOMKET INDIANS. 



THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS. 133 

I have since seen remnants of Indian, 
tribes in nearly all parts of the United 
States ; but I do not now recollect of any 
other which appeared to me quite as vicious 
as the Pamunkeys. What a pity it is that 
these few relics of a great nation — now fast 
disappearing — cannot be preserved pure. 

They had fierce dogs, in great numbers ; 
for I well remember how they annoyed me 
when I approached a house ; and I verily 
thought, more than once, that they would 
tear my clothes, if not my limbs. The dogs 
in Virginia are generally very large and 
fierce, and it would often be dangerous to 
attempt to open a gate, and go to the house 
of a planter, without somebody to guide you. 
But of this I have told you before. 

Some of these fierce Virginia dogs are 
bull-dogs ; others are hounds. Of the lat- 
ter, in particular, many of the planters keep 
great numbers. They are very fond of the 
chase. I have even seen ministers of the 
gospel whose attachment to hunting Avas 
extremely strong. One whom I knew, 
about seventy years of age, would shoot 
down a deer — so I was told — while sitting 



134 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

on a horse, and the horse and deer both at 
full speed. 

But I was speaking of the dogs. There 
is a wide difference among travelers in re- 
gard to managing these dogs, as they coine 
in contact with them. Some are among 
them for many years, and are never so much 
as touched by a single dog; while others 
can hardly be among them a single day 
without being bitten, or having their clothes 
torn. I suffered less than many do from 
their attacks ; yet, with all my non-resist- 
ance principles, they sometimes came so near 
me that I was glad to take a position of 
self-defense. 



THE CHURCH FOX. 135 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

THE CHURCH FOX AND VIRGINIA HUNTING. 

Before I conclude my remarks concerning 
dogs and hunting, I must tell you about 
the church fox, as he was called by hunters 
in that part of the Old Dominion. 

Almost all over the lower or eastern 
counties of Virginia may be seen, in ruins, 
what the present inhabitants of that region 
call Protestant churches. They were built 
by the early English colonists ; many of 
them in the form of a cross — as may be 
seen by the walls, which are still, in part, 
standing. 

Now these old churches have become nice 
places for animals to burrow or hide in — 
such as rabbits, woodchucks, and foxes. 
Foxes, however, have become so scarce all 
over Lower Virginia, that it is seldom the 
hunters find one. Deer are scarce enough ; 
but foxes are still scarcer. 

In one of the counties where I traveled — 



136 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

I believe it was not far below Eichmoncl — I 
heard much said about the church fox. It 
seems there was but one fox left of all the 
tribe of foxes that once inhabited those 
parts. This fox had his home under an old 
church. It was "great fun'^ to chase him, 
though no one was permitted to hurt him. 
Every few days, at certain seasons of the 
year, the sportsman's horn sounded, and 
away went thirty, fifty, or eighty horsemen, 
with perhaps two or three hundred hounds, 
in pursuit of the church fox. 

This fox, at the time I heard of him, had 
been treated in this unceremonious way for 
years ; and I do not know but he is still 
pursued in the same way ; for I am not cer- 
tain how long foxes live. That they have 
not killed him I am pretty sure, unless by 
accident; for I verily believe that at the 
time of which I have been speaking, when 
I traveled there, any person who should 
have shot down the old church fox would 
have been challenged. 

What a strange sport this is ! How can 
it be tliat full-grown men — some of them 
professedly good men ; nay, here and there, 



THE CHURCH FOX. 137 

a minister of the gospel — can take pleasure 
in torturing a poor fox, every now and then, 
in setting a pack of hounds on his track, 
and making him scud for his life ! Would 
our Saviour, if he were on earth, and trav- 
eling or residing in a fox-hunting country, 
take pleasure in such cruel sports ? Would 
he not, on the contrary, condemn them ? 

Whether they have much else to hunt in 
Virginia — or, rather, whether they hunt 
anything else — I am not informed. There 
is a good deal of entrapping and insnaring, 
in some places. Such animals as the mink, 
muskrat, &c., are taken for their furs. The 
Indians at Oldtown procure a great many 
furs of these and other animals, which they 
sell to the whites. 

I wondered, sometimes, why there was 
not more squirrel-hunting done in Virginia ; 
but I came at length to the conclusion that 
the people were too lazy to walk around 
and hunt such small animals as squirrels. 
It is quite an amusement with them to 
mount their horses, and let loose their dogs, 
and chase a poor animal that they do not 
want to kill; but as to laborious hunting 



138 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

on foot, it would probably be irksome to 
them. 

Our Northern people would think it fine 
times — those, I mean, who love to make war 
on the unoffending animals — if they could 
have such an abundance of squirrels to at- 
tack as they have in Virginia; for, to say 
nothing about the common striped and red 
squirrels, which are very numerous every- 
where, in the fields and forests, the gray 
squirrel and the black squirrel are found, 
in some parts of the country, as thick almost 
as grasshoppers. 

There is much more of hunting birds — 
especially sea-birds — than of hunting squir- 
rels ; and perhaps there is a very good rea- 
son for it. The birds, many of them, such 
as the duck, can be shot from a boat, while 
sitting in it, and being rowed about by ser- 
vants : which comports much better w^ith 
the genius of Virginians than the sports 
which are more laborious. 



A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 139 



CHAPTER XIX. 

A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 

One of my excursions in Virginia was made 
in company with a young man who repaired 
time-pieces. I usually separated myself 
from him by day, but met and lodged with 
him at night. In this way each could pur- 
sue his business, and then, when the day 
was over, fall again into each other's society, 
and spend together the long evenings. 

This journey was made through such 
counties as Gloucester and Matthews, where 
are found many very wealthy families, con- 
stituting quite a considerable part of the 
aristocracy of the Old Dominion. Here 
were the Tabbs, the Taliafeuos, the Van 
Bibbers, the Armstrongs, &c., &c. 

It was the lot of my companion to repair 
a watch or clock at the house of one of the 
greatest, or rather the richest of the rich, 
in all this region ; whose name, for the 
present, I will call Sloan e. Colonel Sloane 



140 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

was llo^y about seventy years of age, was 
universally known, and his old-fashioned 
Virginia hospitality was unbounded. In 
short, the two young Northern men were 
invited to spend the night at Colonel 
Sloane^s. 

I felt like a cat in a strange garret, all 
the while I sat at the tea-table. But I felt 
still more the awkwardness of my situation 
when, as soon as tea was over, and the table 
removed, the company began to prepare for 
the evening. The preparation consisted in 
arranging a table, and duly furnishing it 
with cards, for card playing. 

While the arrangement was being made, 
Colonel Sloane came to us and said, " Gen- 
tlemen, you are young and have warm 
blood ; besides, you wish, doubtless, to bo 
by yourselves this evening ; you can, there- 
fore, sit back at the further extremity of 
the room, quite away from us and the fire, 
and spend the evening in your own way. 
If y m want anything, the servants will wait 
on you.'' 

This was not exactly the kind of treat- 
ment we had expected ; but it was of no use 



A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 141 

to remonstrate ; tlie matter was settled — 
as much so as if it bad been a law of the 
ancient Modes and Persians. So, like good 
republicans, who should yield as cheerfully 
as they can to what they cannot help, we 
submitted to our fate. 

It was curious to witness the devotion of 
the family to this most stupid and unmean- 
ing game — the men, I mean ; for though 
the wives and daughters sometimes play 
cards, they did not in the present instance. 

The father, who was oftener called Uncle 
Phil than Colonel Sloane, sat on one side 
of a square table, while his three sons 
— Phil, (Pliilip,) Thomas, and Stephen, oc- 
cupied the other sides. They did not play 
for money, they said ; so each man only 
laid down his half-eagle — making, in all, 
twenty dollars, to be won or lost at each 
game. 

I have told you, already, tliat I know 
very little about card playing ; but I sup- 
pose it is common for real gamblers — black- 
legs, as they are sometimes called — to lay 
down fifty, or a hundred, or a thousand 
dollars each ; so that to lay down five dol- 



142 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

lars merely, especially for wealthy men, was 
considered as nothing at all. If they 
gained it, they did not value so small a 
sum ; and if they lost it, they did not suffer 
materially for the loss of so small a sum. 

They played till nine o'clock precisely, 
when a servant opened the door and told 
the colonel what the hour was — upon which 
he immediately retired. We were shown 
the way to bed soon afterward, having spent 
a long winter's evening in witnessing one 
form of Virginia life, and one species of 
Virginia manners. 

I will not find too much fault with Colo- 
nel Sloane. He certainly had the merit of 
going to bed early. Many of the Virginia 
families sit up, like the English, till twelve 
or one o'clock ; while all this family, as 
well as the head of it, retired early — let 
who would be present — and then rose early 
in the morning. 

But to what purpose did they rise ? Let 
me tell you. The colonel's dayly business 
was hunting and card playing. The former 
occupied most of his days — the latter his 
evenines. I did not learn that he labored 



A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 143 

at all, or even that lie spent any time in 
reading. Indeed, I do not know that he 
had any books. We saw none. He may 
have been the owner of a Bible and prayer- 
book. No Bible, however, was read in the 
family at morning and evening prayer ; for 
no family prayer, as I am bold to affirm, 
was heard in his house. 

How strange it is to think of a being 
endowed with an immortal spirit — a man, 
in sliort, seventy years of age — soon to en- 
ter the eternal world — spending his precious 
hours either in riding round after a pack 
of a hundred hounds, or sitting at a table, 
handling over and over a parcel of papers 
with spots on them ! 

How strange, to see the father of a nu- 
merous family, instead of holding sweet 
conversation with his wife and children and 
friends, on various topics of common inter- 
est and importance, only talking of the 
speed and other merits of dogs and horses, 
and of cards. It is said that " out of the 
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," 
but if it be true that our hearts are shown 
by our words, then the heart of this old 



144 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

man must surely "be set, preeminently, on 
the beasts that perish. 

One thing, in particular, gave me pain. 
It was not that I was obliged, with my com- 
panion, to sit a whole evening almost unno- 
ticed, but that the females and children 
w^ere also. For aught I could discover, the 
ao^ed mother and her matronlv dauo'hter, 
with two or three grand-daugliters, were 
about as much thought of as the cat in the 
corner, or the parrot sleeping in its cage. 

If this is true Virginia hospitality and 
Virginia life, I said to myself, then I am 
truly glad I was not born in Virginia. 
Never, I am sure, in my whole life, did I 
sit down to amuse myself a whole evening, 
or to amuse my clan or party, to the neg- 
lect of everybody else in the room, or in 
the company ; above all, to the manifest 
neglect of my own wife and family. 

When these gentlemen appeared abroad, 
in Norfolk or Eichmond, or elsewhere — for 
some of them were merchants at these 
places, and were only at home now on a 
visit — nobody could exceed them in atten- 
tions to their relatives and friends. They 



A FAMILY OP HUNTERS. 145 

were tlie politest of the polite. But here, 
at home — out of sight of the crowd, as it 
were — how different ! Surely these things 
ought not so to be ! 

But is it so in Virginia, and nowhere 
else ? Alas ! I knew less of the busy world 
when I was at Colonel Sloane's, than I 
now do. I have since found that human 
nature, in high or low life, is nearly the 
same in the Old Dominion and in the New. 
It is acted out, in all its deformities — in 
all its native selfishness — in New-England 
and New- York, and the West, as well as in 
the South. 

No apology was made, when we left in 
the morning, for inattention or neglect. 
Of course we expected none — wanted none. 
The apology was due much more to the 
female part of the family, who were treated, 
all the live-long evening, like so many cats; 
or, worse still, like so many ciphers. The 
apology, however, was principally due, after 
all, to Him who has said, " Son, give me 
thy heart f but who has not said. Set thy 
heart on a pack of cards, or on a pack of 
hounds, or kennel of bull-dogs. 



146 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XX. 
A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. 

In one of these excursions from Norfolk to 
the interior of Virginia, I sought for an ohl 
friend — a resident in that country — with an 
intention to spend the Sabbath with him. 
But Saturday night came, and as the dis- 
tance was yet considerable, the night dark, 
and the roads difficult, I gave up all hope 
of finding him, and inquired for a public 
house. The answer, as usual, was, " We 
have none.'' I was, however, referred to a 
hospitable gentleman, a mile from the road, 
who, it w^as said, sometimes entertained 
travelers, and who would probably receive 
and entertain me, 

I reached his house just after dark ; but, 
to my surprise and extreme mortification — 
for I was greatly fatigued — he was absent, 
and his wife refused to receive me. She 
was kind enough, however, to direct me to 
the house of one of her husband's friends, 



A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. 147 

and to suffer her servant to put me on the 
road. It was a long distance, and m j guide 
was slow and awkward ; but we at length 
reached a certain fork of the road, when he 
left me, saying that such a road would con- 
duct me safely to the place desired. 

Just after he left me, I came to another 
division of the road, which had not been 
mentioned to me. It was dark, quite dark, 
but I could distinctly observe two men 
standing there, conversing together. Judge 
of my surprise, especially when I had but 
lately escaped from the merciless fangs of 
nncle Tom Cooke. I verily believed, for 
the moment, that the men were robbers, 
and that I was anticipated and waylaid. 

But what could I do? Go back I must 
not ; for where could I go ? There was no 
way but to go forward. Should I go boldly 
along, or timidly — slowly, or swiftly? 
Quick as the lightning's glance — almost so, 
for there was no time to be lost — I decided. 
So, taking the road which appeared to me 
to be the true one, I walked boldly on, 
passing within a few feet of the men who 
were conversing together. 



148 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

The men did not appear to notice me, 
and I began to take courage. As soon as I 
was so far beyond them that I thought they 
could not hear my footsteps, I began to run ; 
and I doubt Avhether, to save my life, I 
could have run much faster. When I had 
run a little way,' I discovered a light in the 
field, to which I bent my course, and where 
I soon arrived. 

It proved to be the house which had been 
pointed out to me ; but my troubles were 
not yet over, for the owner could not enter- 
tain me, even for the night. His house was 
small, and his family were sick. He did 
what he could, however. Though dark, and 
now raining, he took a lantern and conduct- 
ed me through the fields, half a mile or 
more, to the residence of his father, who 
consented to entertain me till the Sabbath 
was over. 

You may easily imagine my joy, that af- 
ter wandering an hour or two in the dark 
to find somewhere to lay my head, I had 
found such comfortable lodgings. The per- 
son at whose house I had stopped was a 
deacon in the neighboring church ; and 



A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. 149 

tliougli by no means as grave a man as some 
deacons are, lie was, nevertheless, regarded 
as a very good sort of man. He had a 
large family. As they lived in a part of 
the country which was but little frequented 
by travelers, they crowded round me, eager 
to hear my story ; but I was too much fa- 
tigued to gratify them fully, at that time ; 
and I soon obtained permission to retire for 
the night. 

The Sabbath, by most of us, was spent at 
home — the deacon himself alone attending 
at the church. My own time was chiefly 
spent in reading ; and I found, in the family 
library, several good books. It was, how- 
ever, rather a tedious day. The members 
of the household seemed to take up their 
time chiefly at the toilet, and in cheerful 
conversation. In short, they made it a 
complete holiday. 

Dinner came after church — that is, nearly 
night. Indeed, the people of Virginia — 
the wealthy families, at least — are quite 
apt to be late about dinner. At dinner, 
several of their friends were present — es- 
pecially the young and gay. 



150 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

How different, thought I to myself, from 
the manner of keeping the Sabbath in the 
region where I was brought up ! And yet 
a change was going on there, and has been 
going on ever since. The Sabbath is be- 
coming more and more like a holida}^, eve- 
rywhere. It is not even, by some, regarded 
as a day for doing good. I could bear to 
dismiss the staidness and stiffness which 
characterized the Puritans, in this particu- 
lar, if we would but retain the great idea 
that it is not only " lawful/' but desirable, 
to make this blessed day a day for doing 
good, specially and directly, to our fellow 
creatures. 

One thing there was to be observed, 
which reflected credit on the family of Dea- 
con F. All their mirth and hilarity was 
of the quiet kind. There were no noise and 
confusion ; there was no loud or boisterous 
laughing. Above all, there was no intem- 
perate eating and drinking; unless it is 
proper to say that an extra dinner — one 
that keeps several cooks employed all day, 
and prevents their attending church — is in- 
temperance. 



A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. 151 

There was, however, one thing which I 
did not like at all. Deacon F., though he 
did not keep tavern exactly, accommodated 
the few travelers who came that way. 
There was with him, at this time, a peddler 
of fancy goods. He did not sell them on 
Sunday, however, as I was glad to observe. 
He did, however, that which was next to it. 
For the young gentlemen and ladies who 
were present at dinner asked him, after- 
ward, to allow them to see his goods. He 
consented, only saying he could not sell 
them on the Sabbath. But I think it would 
have been far nobler and better had he re- 
fused even to exhibit them ; for they in- 
quired the prices, and the whole affair was 
of such a worldly character as to remind 
one of what is sometimes called a " shop- 
ping scene," in New- York or Boston. I 
wondered very much that the deacon per- 
mitted anything of the kind. A single 
word from him, and the trunks and boxes 
would not have been opened. 

But tliis peddler did not go so far, after 
all, as some Northern people do in his cir- 
cumstances. Not a few of them go and act 
10 



152 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

among " Eomans/' as " Eomans do." If 
the people among whom they are traveling 
visit places of amusement on Sunday, they 
do not hesitate to do the same. If it is 
customary to perform journeys on Sunday, 
they do the same ; or if the " Eomans'^ buy 
and sell on this day, they buy and sell with 
them. What they do with their consciences 
I do not undertake to say ; or whether they 
have any. One is almost compelled, at 
times, to think there is but little conscience 
in the world, either toward God or toward 
man. 



PERILOUS ADVENTURE. 153 



CHAPTER XXI. 

PERILOUS ADVENTURE AT GWYN'S ISLAND. 

Oi'f Monday morning, very early, I left the 
hospitable mansion of Deacon F. to visit 
Gwyn's Island, a small spot in the Chesa- 
peake Bay, near the mouth of the Pyanke- 
tank River. It was only about a mile from 
the main land to the island. 

This island contains, perhaps, one thous- 
and acres of land, and is owned by about 
ten or twelve planters. One of them, an 
aged man — in all probability not now liv- 
ing — was a bachelor by the name of Gwyn ; 
from whose paternal ancestry, I suppose, 
the island took its name. 

It was a beautiful morning when we 
passed over. The boat carried us very near 
Mr. Gwyn's mansion, and as I had heard 
much about him and his dogs, barrels of 
money, &c., I had a desire to see him. 

As I have intimated, Mr. Gwyn was sup- 
posed to be immensely rich, and to have in 



154: RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

his possession several barrels of dollars. 
To secure himself against robbery, he kept 
a pack of fierce dogs. One, in particular, 
^yas very large and formidable. Indeed, he 
was said to be so trained as to seize by the 
throat and hold fast the strongest man. 

In the midst of my curiosity to see the 
man, however, I forgot the dangerous dog ; 
and as the dogs did not, for once, happen to 
see me, I soon found myself knocking at 
the door of his apartment. A servant 
oj)ened the door, expressing the greatest 
surprise that the dogs had not seen me and 
torn me in jjieces. 

But it so turned out that 1 did not see 
the dogs, the dollars, or the owner. Where 
any of them were I am as ignorant as be- 
fore I visited the island. Mr. Gwyn, in all 
probability, was occupied in his own selfish 
pursuits, and had no wish to see a stranger 
who had no special business with him, and 
who only called to look at him. 

I visited several places on the island, and, 
as the day was far spent, I concluded, at 
length, to remain during the night. It liad 
been mild and pleasant during the day, 



PERILOUS ADVENTURE. 155 

but it was no\y cold ; and, for that part of 
the country, very cold. The changes of 
weather in Virginia are apt to be sudden 
and great in winter; but this was more 
sudden than nsual. The night which fol- 
lowed was one of the coldest I ever knew, 
either in Virginia, New-England, or any- 
where else. 

In the morning, to the surprise of every- 
body, the sheet of water between the island 
and the main land south of it was found 
fast freezing over. The side, in fact, which 
was toward the island — the northern side — 
was already frozen quite hard, and at some 
points the ice extended quite across. 

As it was an uncommon occurrence for 
this body of water to freeze over — and when 
once frozen, it might remain frozen many 
days, and thus prevent my speedy return to 
the main-land, (which was to me highly im- 
portant,) — I determined to return, if possi- 
ble, immediately. In truth, I was under a 
positive engagement to be at a certain place 
on a day which was not very far distant, 
and which would not permit of any delay 
on the island. 



15G RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

It was, however, with very great difficulty 
that anybody could be procured to convey 
me over ; first, because it was so cold ; sec- 
ondly, because it would be difficult, if not 
impossible, to get a boat through the ice. 
It was not till I had offered a considerable 
sum that a white man and two negroes were 
employed to make the attempt. 

We were at length seated in a boat, and 
were attempting to proceed. At first the 
ice was so thin as not to impede, greatly, 
the progress of the boat ; and in truth there 
were places — breathing holes, as it were — 
in which there was no ice at all. . By fol- 
lowing the line of these openings, and by 
making a little extra effort, we succeeded 
in getting about half-way across the stream, 
with as little difficulty as could reasonably 
have been expected. 

But now came the " tug of war.'^ The 
ice became so thick, in many places, that it 
was next to impossible to force the boat 
through it. Our only way was to thrust 
her forward end, or bow, upon the top of 
the ice, and then step forward, and by 
means of our united weight — four of us — 



VISIT TO YORKTOWN. 163 

a great number of little pits or cavities, all 
over the public green or common, which 
somewhat resembled the places where our 
Northern people have once buried apples or 
potatoes. The hollows were, indeed, thickly 
covered with sward as old and as firm as 
the rest of the ground ; still they looked 
like potato holes, and were about as large. 

On asking the cause of this singular ap- 
pearance, I was told that the pits were places 
where the bomb-shells burst which General 
Washington and his men threw into the 
village, to annoy Lord Cornwallis and his 
army. Some of them were thrown, I be- 
lieve, a distance of two miles ; that is, from 
Gloucester, on the north side of the river — 
where, too, as in the village of York town, 
are still found many embankments. 

There is one thing more in connection 
with York town which seems to me worth 
relating. The village, as has been said al- 
ready, is on the south bank of York Eiver. 
The banks of the river here are quite high, 
and seem to consist of a kind of rock, made 
up of petrified sand, sea-shells, &c. It is 
very soft, and may be easily cut with an 



1G4 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

old ax or hatchet. In some places the 
bank is thirty feet high, and even more, 
and exactly perpendicular. 

Here, in one of these perpendicular places, 
not far from the water's edge, is a sort of 
cave, which the people of Yorktown call 
" Cornwallis's Cave.'' It consists of two 
rooms, adjoining each other, cut out of the 
soft rock. One of them is as large as an 
ordinary sleeping chamber ; the other is 
much smaller, and seems like a closet. 

The tradition at Yorktown is that this 
cave was made by Cornwallis's men, and 
that he made it his head-quarters, at least 
a part of the time, while Washington was 
besieging. But I do not know how this 
was. I have used the word tradition, for, 
strange to say, I could find nobody in York- 
town who lived there during the Eevolution- 
ary War. The people of Lower Virginia are 
not long-lived, by any means ; besides, it is 
a good while since the Kevolutionary War 
took place. 

I was at Yorktown during the season 
which intervenes between Christmas and 
New Year's. The colored people use this 



VISIT TO YORKTOWN. 165 

period as a continued holiday ; and they are 
as merry, I assure you, as if they were free- 
men. One who should see them, at this 
season, and at no other, would think them 
the happiest people in the world. Well, 
perhaps, it is so ; for their condition would 
be far less tolerable, had it no such alle- 
viations, than it now is. 



166 BAx^IBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

MY SICK COMPANION. 

On returning from one of my journeys to 
the interior, I found the young man who 
had accompanied me from home to Norfolk, 
and who was my fellow-boarder at Mr. 
Brown's, quite ill. Hoping the disease 
would not be serious, I remained at home a 
few days, to take care of him. It was the 
fourteenth day of February when I found 
him sick. 

But instead of any improvement in his 
condition, matters every day grew worse. 
There was a continued fever, and the phy- 
sician did not give us any reason to hope 
for its immediate remission. How long it 
would run, as the saying is, we could not, 
of course, determine. 

What now was to be done ? For though 
Ave were bound to hope still for the best, we 
were also under equally strong obligations 
to prepare for the worst. Our chamber — 



MY SICK COMPANION. 167 

the only one to be had in the house, and 
hardly fit for the healthy — was quite too 
narrow ; and, besides, there was no oppor- 
tunity to ventilate it, except by raising a 
single window. And then, again, it was in 
an upper story of the house, and almost in- 
accessible. 

There was another diflSculty, greater still. 
How was he to be taken care of? The only 
female domestic in the house was fully oc- 
cupied, and there were no males ; and as to 
employing an assistant, or nurse, from 
abroad, that was impossible, for there was 
no place for another individual to sleep. 

Could I leave my business, and take' care 
of him myself? By laboring hard, I was 
earning some fifteen or twenty dollars a 
month. Must I relinquish this, and not 
only earn nothing, but give up my time to 
aid my companion ? 

When the question came to this, I could 
not long hesitate. I could not bear to leave 
him. I had a conscience. That conscience 
bade me do my duty ; or, at least, do as I 
would be done by. 

It was in vain to remind my companion 



1G8 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

of his repeated imprudences, while traveling 
about the city, and elsewhere ; — how he 
drank large quantities of bad water to 
slake his thirst, for example, against all 
my remonstrances, when smaller quantities 
w^ould have done just as well ; nay, would 
have quenched his thirst better than large 
ones. He was now sick ; and though his 
sickness was the just punishment of his 
mismanagement, he must nevertheless be 
taken care of. And he must be taken care 
of v>diere he w^as, too ; for he was too ill to 
be removed. Besides, we had not the means 
of defraying his expenses at an advanced 
price. 

His disease became dayly more and more 
severe, and at last produced a degree of 
mental derangement. I took the care of 
him night and day, both because I was un- 
willing to trust him to others, and also be- 
cause no one whom I would trust could be 
obtained. There were many Northern men 
in the borough, but when I applied to them 
I found them either cold and heartless, or 
afraid of taking the disease. 

The result was, that I was obliged to 



MY SICK COMPANION. 169 

watcli liim by night and by day — make his 
bed, administer his medicines, and perform 
the most menial services, for about five 
weeks, with the exception of two nights, 
when I had a little relief from friends. 
Why I did not get sick myself I cannot 
now understand, especially as the air was 
very impure. 

His insanity, at times, made my task 
much more severe than otherwise it would 
have been. It was not always easy to gov- 
ern and control him. His resistance to my 
commands would sometimes rise to open 
rebellion ; and in one instance he struck 
me so hard on the head as almost to bring 
me to the floor. 

Sometimes I contrived to sleep two or 
three hours in the twenty-four; but it was 
difficult to do so, on account of administer- 
ing the medicine. But there was one 
thing quite in m.y favor : my aj^petite usu- 
ally held out ; and as long as we can pre- 
serve a good appetite, we need not greatly 
fear. 

I have said that my appetite usually held 
out. One exception may be mentioned. In 
11 



170 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

the midst of my sore trial with my com- 
panion, news came from my home at the 
North, of sudden, severe, and fatal sickness 
among my relatives and friends. Two or 
three of them — a brother and sister and an 
aged grant-parent — one after another, were 
laid in the grave. My mother's life, too, 
was not expected. This, as might well he 
supposed, greatly added to my burden of 
woe ; and my appetite almost sunk under it. 
Here was danger ; yet out of even all this 
I was delivered. Nor could I quite forget 
the unseen hand that sustained me, though 
as yet I did not recognize it as became me. 
I was still too thoughtless on religious sub- 
jects. 

I was, I confess, a little troubled about 
expenses. For board, indeed, no extra 
charges were being made, and we knew it ; 
and this was a great favor. But the pliy- 
sician came once a day always, and some- 
times twice; and had a long distance to 
walk ; and we feared his charges would bo 
extravagant. Yet here, too. Providence was 
in our favor. For attendance about a 
month, and for some medicine, there was 



MY SICK COMPANION. 171 

only tlie very moderate charge of thirty-five 
dollars. 

The truth is, we had fajien into the hands 
of a gentleman and a Christian ; for there 
are such in the profession, both at the North 
and at the South. 



172 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

A GREAT EIRE. 

Just as my friend was recovering, and was 
in a condition to be left during the day, a 
most destructive fire took place in the vi- 
cinity of Norfolk, which had well nigh de- 
stroyed both Norfolk and Portsmouth. 

The fire was in Portsmouth, a village of 
some two hundred houses, (with a navy-yard 
annexed,) about a mile southward of Nor- 
folk, directly opposite to it, on the other 
side of Elizabeth Eiver. It was about two 
o'cloclv in the morning when the fire broke 
out, about the middle of March ; and a 
March wind was blowing fresh and strong 
from south to north. 

The conflagration began at the market- 
house, near the center of Portsmouth vil- 
lage, and extending northward, consumed 
about one-fourth of the whole village, or 
fifty-nine houses. It also destroyed several 
vessels which lay at anchor there, and, on 



A GREAT FIRE. 173 

account of low tides at the time, could not 
be removed. One house onlj, in all this 
quarter of the village, escaped destruction ; 
and this was the very one which all good 
people would most willingly have seen de- 
stroyed, as it was occupied by the abandoned 
of both sexes. Why, in the Providence of 
a holy God, this worse than any ordinary 
pest-house should have been left, no one 
could conjecture ; especially as it was very 
much exposed to the ravages of the fire. 

The navy-yard, and all that pertained to 
it, was uninjured, on account of the course 
of the wind, which carried the fire in quite 
another direction. One or two of the ves- 
sels which were burnt belonged, I believe, 
to the naval department. 

I was aroused at half past two, to witness 
the most terrible fire I ever wish to see. I 
had seen many fires before that time, as 
well as many others since ; but I have 
never, either before or since, seen anything 
half equal to it for awful sublimity. Fifty- 
nine buildings, and three or four vessels, on 
fire, nearly at the same time, and burning, 
by reason of the wind, with great fury, is a 



174 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

scene wliicli I cannot wish ever to witness 
again. 

During the progress of the fire, which 
was a mile distant, and rather more, not a 
few of the citizens of Norfolk were obliged 
to ascend to the roofs of their houses, to 
prevent their own destruction ; for pieces 
of shingles came over, wafted by the wind, 
so large and so much on fire as to endan- 
ger the roofs on which they fell. I saw, 
with my own eyes, one house take fire in 
this way ; and it cost a good degree of efibrt 
to extinguish it. 

As soon as it was day, all the boats which 
could be used were loaded to the water's 
edge with people who were going over to 
see the ruins which the fire had made. 
Among the rest, another person and myself 
went over. We crossed in a frail boat, and 
the wind still blew fresh ; but what do 
people care about safety in such cases, 
where curiosity loudly demands gratifica- 
tion? 

We were a long time in passing over, so 
strong and so directly " ahead" was the 
wind. At length, however, we arrived in 



A GREAT FIRE. 175 

safety, and were strolling about among the 
ruins. 

The first thing that attracted our atten- 
tion was the multitude of naked, or, at least, 
half-naked children, peeping out of the 
shops and stores, to which, in the moment 
of alarm, they were glad to escape, to save 
their lives. One would have thought there 
were hundreds of this description. I sup- 
pose that a large part of the sufferers were 
poor before the fire ; but this sad visitation 
swept away what little they had. Many, 
both adults and children, hardly saved all 
their clothes ; and few families had time to 
save their furniture. 

We pitied, but could not help them. 
They had bread for the present, but what 
became of them afterward I never knew. 
However, I have no idea that they were suf- 
fered to starve. There are benevolent peo- 
ple in Virginia, as well as elsewhere. 

It was sad to witness the desolation in 
the gardens, as well as the destruction 
which, as a besom, had swept away the 
houses. There were some very beautiful 
gardens in Portsmouth, and they were as 
/ 



170 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

forward at that time (say March twentieth) 
as they usually are in Northern or even 
Middle New-England, the first of May— 
perhaps even more so. The fruit-trees and 
shrubs, the nice things in their hot-houses, 
the neat hedges of box and thorn, were 
either partly or wholly destroyed ; most of 
them wholly so. Here and there, too, were 
seen smoking among the ruins a domestic 
animal, as a cow or a pig. Some of the 
horses in the stables escaped uninjured, 
while some had their manes and tails burnt, 
or were otherwise disfigured. 

There are other dangers in the world, as 
well as danger from fire. One of these was 
discovered here, though it was occasioned 
by the fire. As we walked here and there, 
observing the ruins, we could not help no- 
ticing the many tall chimneys that had not 
fallen, and wondering how they happened 
to be left standing. By and by we heard 
something crash down into the road, just 
behind us ; and on turning our eyes, lo ! 
one of these chimneys had fallen across 
the street. Had it fallen but a second 
or two sooner, it must have crushed us to 




ALL OF THE CHIMNEY. 



A GREAT FIRE. 179 

atoms. There could have been no possible 
escape. 

It is sometimes said that there is but a 
step, a plank, a hair's breadth, &c., between 
us and death. Here, in any event, there 
was only a few steps between us and death. 
We were struck with the thought of our 
escape, at first ; but it was soon partially 
forgotten. Mankind do not remember such 
things as they ought. They are warnings, 
and should be heeded. Alas ! when will 
men be wise ? 

O ! how many hair-breadth escapes I have 
had, during a somewhat long life ! Few, I 
think, have had as many. The Apostle 
Paul recounts a large number. He was, as 
you know, a great traveler. I sometimes 
think I have had nearly as many. Nor 
have they always been, as lessons, wholly 
unprofitable. They have made me more 
wary, and it may be they have awakened in 
my heart emotions of gratitude to my great 
Preserver. If not, however, they must have 
hardened me ; for all these things prove 
either a savor of life unto life, or of death un- 
to death. There is no middle way or effect. 



180 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

We were, at length, tired of the painful 
scene of desolation and destruction, and re- 
turned to Norfolk. Our passage over the 
river was quite as dangerous as before ; in- 
deed, the danger was increased, by having 
one of the hands who was set to row for us 
sadly intoxicated. How long will the lives 
of sober men be intrusted to drunkards ! 



THE STEAMBOAT. 181 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE STEAMBOAT AND THE SHIPWRECK. 

I WAS at Hampton one day, and wished to 
go to Norfolk. The distance was fourteen 
miles. A steamboat runs dayly between the 
two places ; but at the moment when I 
wished to go, she was delayed by a strong 
head-wind. True, she could go, as it was 
supposed, in the teeth, as it were, of the 
wind ; but not so well ; so the captain wait- 
ed a little. 

Several hours of suspense having elapsed, 
and no prospect existing of any abatement 
of the wind, it was decided to go. Our 
course was by way of a place called Old 
Point Comfort, where we were to touch and 
take in passengers. The wind was not so 
much against us till we had reached the 
Point ; so that we got along, thus far, very 
comfortably. 

But after we had passed the Point, and 
were obliged to go directly across the Eoads 



1(S2 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

— for tliis is the name usually given to an 
expansion of the James and Elizabeth Pav- 
ers, here at their junction — the wind and 
tide were so strongly against us that we 
could scarcely go forward at all. In a 
whole hour we did not gain over two miles. 

But this was not all. The steamboat 
was an old, crazy vessel, and the waves 
strong and high ; and it happened occasion- 
ally, that when a heavy sea, as the sailors 
say, struck us, it seemed as though the boat 
would actually break in two. Indeed, some 
of the passengers were excessively frighten- 
ed, and thought the boat would part the 
very next moment. 

They expressed their fears to the captain ; 
but that did no good. He only laughed at 
their timidity, as he called it. However, 
he at last was frightened himself — or at 
least we thought so — and concluded to put 
back. We had been out four or five hours, 
and were not as many miles from Hampton 
wharf. 

On reaching Hampton there was a small 
sloop ready to sail, and we all went on 
board of her. She could cross very well, 



THE STEAMBOAT. 183 

either by lying close to the wind or heating. 
She was under weigh soon after dark. We 
had a rough time of it, I assure you ; hut 
in less than two hours were safely landed 
in Norfolk. 

I like a steamboat, but not in circum- 
stances like this. I would not again be 
placed in such circumstances for the price 
of my life. It is possible there was less of 
danger than the passengers supposed ; but 
I have no doubt there was great danger, or 
the proud and headstrong commander of 
the boat never would have yielded to their 
importunity. 

There is danger, however, everywhere. 
It was but recently that I had narrowly es- 
caped losing my life at Portsmouth ; then, 
again, I had escaped the dangers of Hamp- 
ton Eoads, in a crazy steamboat ; and now, 
again, I had avoided certain dangers on 
which others had, at the same time, split. 
I will relate briefly the story to which I al- 
lude. 

Captain Wagner, of the sloop Eising Sun, 
of Middletown, in Connecticut, in coming 
up the Roads to Norfolk, just behind us, 



184 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

liad struck, in a place on the north-east side 
of the river, called Lynnhaven Bay; and 
his vessel had gone to pieces. The passen- 
gers and hands, including a lady, were all 
saved, though not without difficulty. 

The news of the shipwreck produced quite 
a sensation in Norfolk ; for a shipwreck in 
that place, even in a blustering time, was 
not common. 



SICKNESS AND DISEASE. 185 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

SICKNESS AND DISEASE. 

Much is said about the Southern States, 
especially the region where I traveled, as 
being sickly. You remember the cautions 
I received about going to Charleston, just 
at the time I ventured there ; and the silly 
advice of a friend to take with me some 
jiills, and swallow one every other day. 

I will tell you how it is about sickness. 
In some of the largest towns and cities there 
is more danger of contracting fevers than 
with us ; and in some parts of the country 
the danger is slightly increased by stagnant 
water, or by the effluvia which passes into 
the atmosphere from swamps, marshes, and 
ponds, when the water has just dried up. 

Certain it is that they have a vast amount 
of sickness among them, from one cause or 
another. You find, from the grave-stones, 
that they have very few old people there, 
except, perhaps, here and there, an aged 



186 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

slave ; and on going around the country 
where you had become acquainted but a 
year before, it would seem, at first inquiry, 
as if almost everybody was dead. 

I have said this mortality must have one 
cause or another. I doubt not it has many ; 
though I think it has far less to do with 
climate than is generally supposed. It has 
more, much more, to do with the habits of 
the people. 

In the first place, they expose themselves 
to the damp night air, after their long hot 
days, and without a sufficient regard to a 
proper change of clothing. If they are too 
hot, they cool themselves as suddenly as 
they can ; if too cold, they are as anxious to 
get warm suddenly. 

Secondly, their food is not good. They 
eat too much pork, and use too much hot 
bread, both of Indian and wheat flour. 
Then they use too much strong coffee. 
They are also more irregular about their 
meals than they ought to be ; and they 
are in the habit of eating too late in the 
evening. 

Thirdly, they use too much medicine. 



SICKNESS AND DISEASE. 187 

One man, a minister of the gospel, said to 
me, " If anything ails me or my family, we 
take down the calomel/^ This is as wrong, 
with their hahits and tendencies, as if the 
whole aim were to break down the constitu- 
tion. Whatever may he thought of the oc- 
casional use of calomel, in other complaints, 
in cooler countries, it is not safe to use it 
inuch in Lower Virginia and the Carolinas. 
Nobody that uses it freely has much force 
of constitution. 

I met with one Ellis, a Northern man, 
who had been treated for ague and fever, 
some ten years before, as the custom is^to 
treat it all over that country. But his 
dosing and drugging for it had completely 
destroyed his health. He had never seen a 
healthful hour afterward; probably never 
has seen one to this day. 

I have told you already that since the 
time of my first rambles in the South, I 
have been a great traveler ; and yet, in no 
part of the country I have seen, have I ob- 
served so many diseased people. Nowhere 
have I seen so many weak eyes, sore throats, 
sore ears, fever sores, chilblains, &c. No- 
12 



188 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

where have I seen so many spectacles worn, 
so many artificial teeth, or so much false 
hair. All this implies erroneous hahits — 
physical transgression somewhere, in pa- 
rents or children, or both. 

I do not mean to say, or even to intimate, 
that they are greater transgressors than we 
should probably be, in their circumstances ; 
unless, perhaps, in one single thing — the 
habit of taking medicine. We do immense 
mischief everywhere, from the cradle to the 
grave, by injudicious and excessive medica- 
tion, especially when unprescribed. But in 
this particular the Southern people outdo 
us, and reap for themselves and their pos- 
terity the consequences. 

If people wish to go to the South for any 
noble or worthy purpose, I know of but few 
places where they may not reside the whole 
year — ay, and for life — almost as w^ell as 
at the North, provided they will but obey 
tlie laws of health and life. These laws, 
however, must be known, before they will 
be obeyed, either there or here ; and hither- 
to, most persons have only been partially 
enlightened concerning them. 



THE COCK-FIGHT. 189 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
THE COCK-FIGHT. 

Some time in May I embarked in a packet 
for New- York. We sailed on Saturday, but 
as the wind was unfavorable for putting to 
sea, we anchored in Hampton Roads for the 
night. 

The next day (Sunday) the wind was, if 
possible, still more unfavorable. It was 
actually out of our power to get beyond the 
capes, if we had desired. There were as 
many as thirty vessels detained in the 
Roads, as we were ; forming quite a beauti- 
ful sight. 

It was a bad place to spend Sunday ; but 
we had no alternative. We did the best we 
could. We could read our Bibles — those 
who had them. There is no place where a 
person cannot keep the Sabbath, if he is 
disposed to. keep it. Even if he has no Bi- 
ble, he has before him the great open vol- 
ume of nature, and the volume of his own 



190 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

heart. This last, however, is a volume 
which most people dislike to study ; though 
to all, or nearly all, nothing is or can be 
more needful. 

The Sabbath, though on ship-board, at 
length wore away. Monday morning came, 
but it brought with it no better prospect of 
our getting to sea. The wind was as unfa- 
vorable as ever. Some of our passengers, 
tired with waiting, returned to Norfolk, to 
proceed to New- York, perhaps, in some 
other vessel. What they expected to gain 
by the exchange, however, it was difficult to 
conjecture ; for our own vessel would be as 
likely to sail as soon as any vessel could*; 
and few could outsail her. Most of us, 
therefore, chose to remain, and take our 
chance with Captain Skidmore. 

It was now recollected by the captain and 
crew, that they had seen advertisements, a 
few days before, for a cock-fight at Hamp- 
ton, to take place that day. "I should like 
to go to that fight,'' said the captain. " So 
should I," said one and another of the crew. 
The passengers were silent ; partly because 
they supposed the boat could not take them, 



THE COCK-FIGHT. 191 

and partly because of the roughness of the 
water: for the wind, which I have told you al- 
ready, was ahead, blew very strongly, and, 
to mere landsmen, it seemed as though a 
common boat, or even the hughest long-boat, 
could hardly live in such a sea. The cap- 
tain, however, said there was no danger, 
though it would be tedious to row two 

o 

or three miles against such a strong 
wind. 

They had lowered the boat, and were 
about to get into it, when I said, '' Captain^ 
is there room for me ?" " Yes,'^ said he, 
" if you will row, and row against me/^ I 
told him I was not at all used to a boat ; 
but as he was an old man, and I a young 
one, I ought to be able to row with him. 
" Come, then," said he, smiling, " and see 
what you can do." 

We were soon on the great deep, in our 
little bark, and I was rowing with Captain 
Skidmore — he on one side of the boat, and 
I on the other. Now the boat was on the 
top of a huge wave — a little mountain, as 
it were — and now it was in a valley, be-"* 
tween two waves, so large that you could 



192 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 

scarcely see over them. It was a long time 
before we could discover that we had made 
much progress. At length, however, as we 
forced away toward the land, the wind 
seemed to blow less violently, and falling 
under a lee-shore, we soon made consider- 
able progress. The worst of it was, I was 
blistering both my hands. 

After much toil, we reached Hampton ; 
and if no one else was glad, I am quite sure 
I was. The cock-fight, however, to our sur- 
prise, had been postponed. Thus I fortu- 
nately lost the opportunity of witnessing so 
demoralizing a scene, and lost it forever. 
I could not now, with Christian principles, 
be present at a scene so repulsive to every 
humane and ennobling sentiment. 

We spent a few hours at Hampton, and 
then made the best of our way to the ves- 
sel. We carried back with us one of the 
largest collections of eggs I ever saw in a 
j|. single boat. They seemed to load her 
■ down, without any hands or passengers. 
Virginia is a famous place for eggs. They 
cost but a mere trifle. 

It was much easier to get back to the 



THE COCK-FIGHT. 103 

vessel than it liad been to get to Hampton. 
I do not say it was safer, however ; for the 
boat rolled about much worse. The wind 
and tlie tide being with us, neither the cap- 
tain's oar nor my own was needed. We 
were soon on board, in all our former mo- 
notony. 

Night came on, with prospects no better ; 
but next morning the wind had subsided, 
and appeared to be getting round. The 
captain said we must go, and immediately 
began to prepare for sailing. I could not 
help wishing that our companions who had 
gone back to Norfolk were on board ; for 
we had every reasonable prospect of a good 
voyage ; whereas, it was possible they might 
not get away that day, or be in New- York 
before the next week. 



194 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

GOING HOME. 

The scene which presented itself in Hamjv 
ton Roads was one of the finest of the kind 
my eyes ever witnessed. Nearly fifty sail of 
vessels that had been detained, were now 
ready to sail, and were s^oreading their 
white canvass to the breeze. Far as the 
eye could reach they were to be seen, their 
colors set and their bows pointing in the 
same outward direction. 

It is hardly necessary for me to say, that 
my good friend and traveling companion, 
with whom I had held much excellent coun- 
sel, and with whom I had often sympathized, 
both in health and sickness, did not return 
with me. He remained behind to " occupy" 
till he had paid his bills for his long sick- 
ness. He returned, however, the ensuing 
summer. 

Never, perhaps, since the world began, 
did a vessel glide along more pleasantly 



GOING nOME. 195 

from Norfolk to New- York than did our 
little sloop Magg. In less than twice 
twenty-four hours, and without a single 
mishap worth mentioning, we found our- 
selves alongside of one of the wharves in 
New-York. 

With a breeze equally prosperous, I was 
soon wafted sixty miles further, to a small 
port called Mill Eun, on the southern shore 
of Connecticut. Thence I walked, some 
twenty-five or thirty miles, to the residence 
of my father and mother. 

These I found — and all others now in the 
land of the living — in tolerable health. 
They were, doubtless, as glad to meet with 
me, as I was to see again their own smiling 
faces. They had buried me, in anticipation, 
long ago ; but I still lived, while others of 
whose demise they had not so much as 
thought, when I left them, had been called 
away. 

Thus it sometimes happens. A young 
man breaks away from the paternal circle, 
and goes to California. A score or two of 
deeply-affected friends weep over him, ex- 
pecting to meet him no more on this side 



196 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. / '" " ^^ 

the world eternal. Meanwhile, it scarcely' 
enters their minds that, perchance, in the ^'' 
counsels of high heaven, the young man, 
though exposed to a thousand dangers, seen 
and unseen, will in due time return ; but 
they shall be missing. But thus it is or- -. 
dered. The young man returns in a year -^ 
or two, or three ; but half a dozen of the 
circle that wept over him have gone a long- 
er journey than that to California — one 
from which no traveler returns. 

Are we not all travelers to a distant land 
— pilgrims to a better country ? If not, we 
ouglit to be. Travelers and pilgrims we 
most certainly are. No one of us has here 
an abiding place, a continuing city. Happy 
they who not only admit in theory, but in 
practice also, their pilgrim character, and 
seek for themselves a city which hath foun- 
dations — is permanent — whose builder and 
maker is God. 



THE END. 



■mr^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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